My people; stories of the peasantry of West Wales

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

MY PEOPLE

MY PEOPLE

BY

GARADOG EVANS

LONDON: ANDREW MELROSE, LTD.
3 YORK STREET, GOVENT GARDEN, W.G.

> — /

CONTENTS

PAGE

I. A FATHER IN SION ... 3

II. A HEIFER WITHOUT BLEMISH . 23

III. THE WAY OF THE EARTH . . 41

IV. THE TALENT THOU GAVEST . 65
V. THE GLORY THAT WAS SIGN'S . 85

VI. THE DEVIL IN EDEN . . . 105

VII. THE WOMAN WHO SOWED INIQUITY 121

VIII. A JUST MAN IN SODOM . . 143

IX. BE THIS HER MEMORIAL . . 161

X. THE REDEEMER . . . .175

XI. As IT is WRITTEN . . .193

XII. A BUNDLE OF LIFE . . . 213

XIII. GREATER THAN LOVE . . . 233

XIV. LAMENTATIONS .... 249
XV. THE BLAST OF GOD . . .265

V

702798

A FATHER IN SIGN

I

A FATHER IN SION

ON the banks of Avon Bern there lived a
man who was a Father in Sion. His name
was Sadrach, and the name of the farm-
house in which he dwelt was Danyrefail.
He was a man whose thoughts were con-
tinually employed upon sacred subjects.
He began the day and ended the day with
the words of a chapter from the Book
and a prayer on his lips. The Sabbath
he observed from first to last ; he neither
laboured himself nor allowed any in his
household to labour. If in the Seiet,
the solemn, soul-searching assembly that
gathers in Capel Sion on the nights of
Wednesdays after Communion Sundays, he
was entreated to deliver a message to the

3

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congregation, he often prefaced his re-
marks with, " Dear people, on my way to
Sion I asked God what He meant—

This episode in the life of Sadrach
Danyrefail covers a long period ; it has
its beginning on a March night with
Sadrach closing the Bible and giving
utterance to these words :

" May the blessing of the Big Man be
upon the reading of His Word." Then,
" Let us pray."

Sadrach fell on his knees, the open
palms of his hands together, his elbows
resting on the table ; his eight children —
Sadrach the Small, Esau, Simon, Rachel,
Sarah, Daniel, Samuel, and Miriam —
followed his example.

Usually Sadrach prayed fluently, in
phrases not unworthy of the minister, so
universal, so intimate his pleading : to-
night he stumbled and halted, and the
working of his spiritful mind lacked the
heavenly symmetry of the mind of the

A FATHER IN SIGN

godly ; usually the note of abundant faith
and childlike resignation rang grandly
throughout his supplications : to-night
the note was one of despair and gloom.
With Job he compared himself, for was
not the Lord trying His servant to the
uttermost ? Would the all-powerful Big
Man, the Big Man who delivered the
Children of Israel from the hold of the
Egyptians, give him a morsel of strength
to bear his cross ? Sadrach reminded God
of his loneliness. Man was born to be
mated, even as the animals in the fields.
Without mate man was like an estate
without an overseer, or a field of ripe corn
rotting for the reaping-hook.

Sadrach rose from his knees. Sadrach
the Small lit the lantern which was to
light him and Esau to their bed over the
stable.

" My children," said Sadrach, " do you
gather round me now, for have I not
something to tell you ? J:

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Rachel, the eldest daughter, a girl of
twelve, with reddish cheeks and bright
eyes, interposed with :

" Indeed, indeed, now, little father ; you
are not going to preach to us this time of
night I "

Sadrach stretched forth his hand and
motioned his children be seated.

" Put out your lantern, Sadrach the
Small," he said. "No, Rachel, don't
you light the candle. Dear ones, it is
not the light of this earth we need, but
the light that comes from above."

" Iss, iss," Sadrach the Small said.
" The true light. The light the Big Man
puts in the hearts of those who believe,
dear me."

" Well spoken, Sadrach the Small. Now
be you all silent awhile, for I have things
of great import to tell you. Heard you
all my prayer ? '

" Iss, iss," said Sadrach the Small.

" Sadrach the Small only answers. My
6

A FATHER IN SIGN

children, heard you all my prayer ? Don't
you be blockheads now — speak out."

" There's lovely it was," said Sadrach
the Small.

" My children ? " said Sadrach.

" Iss, iss," they answered.

"Well, well, then. How can I tell
you ? '; Sadrach put his fingers through
the thin beard which covered the opening
of his waistcoat, closed his eyes, and mur-
mured a prayer. " Your mother Achsah
is not what she should be. Indeed to
goodness, now, what disgrace this is ! Is
it not breaking my heart ? You did hear
how I said to the nice Big Man that I was
like Job ? Achsah is mad."

Rachel sobbed.

" Weep you not, Rachel. It is not for
us to question the all-wise ways of the
Big Man. Do you dry your eyes on your
apron now, my daughter. You, too, have
your mother's eyes. Let me weep in my
solitude. Oh, what sin have I committed,

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that God should visit this affliction on
me?"

Rachel went to the foot of the stairs.

"Mam! "she called.

" She will not hear you," Sadrach inter-
rupted. " Dear me, have I not put her
in the harness loft ? It is not respectable
to let her out. Twm Tybach would
have sent his wife to the madhouse of
Carmarthen. But that is not Christian.
Rachel, Rachel, dry your eyes. It is not
your fault that Achsah is mad. Nor do I
blame Sadrach the Small, nor Esau, nor
Simon, nor Sarah, nor Daniel, nor Samuel,
nor Miriam. Goodly names have I given
you all. Live you up to them. Still, my
sons and daughters, are you not all re-
sponsible for Achsah's condition ? With
the birth of each of you she has got worse
and worse. Child-bearing has made her
foolish. Yet it is un-Christian to blame

you."

Sadrach placed his head in his arms.
8

A FATHER IN SIGN

Sadrach the Small took the lantern and
he and Esau departed for their bed over
the stable; one by one the remaining six
put off their clogs and crept up the
narrow staircase to their beds.

Wherefore to her husband Achsah be-
came as a cross, to her children as one for-
gotten, to every one living in Manteg and
in the several houses scattered on the
banks of Avon Bern as Achsah the mad-
woman.

The next day Sadrach removed the har-
ness to the room in the dwelling-house in
which slept the four youngest children ;
and he put a straw mattress and a straw
pillow on the floor, and on the mattress
he spread three sacks ; and these were the
furnishings of the loft where Achsah spent
her time. The frame of the small window
in the roof he nailed down, after fixing on
the outside of it three solid bars of iron
of uniform thickness; the trap-door he
padlocked, and the key of the lock never

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left his possession. Achsah's food he him-
self carried to her twice a day, a procedure
which until the coming of Martha some
time later he did not entrust to other
hands.

Once a week when the household was
asleep he placed a ladder from the floor
to the loft, and cried :

" Achsah, come you down now."

Meekly the woman obeyed, and as her
feet touched the last rung Sadrach threw a
cow's halter over her shoulders, and drove
her out into the fields for an airing.

Once, when the moon was full, the pair
was met by Lloyd the Schooling and the
sight caused Mishtir Lloyd to run like a
frightened dog, telling one of the women
of his household that Achsah, the mad-
woman, had eyes like a cow's.

At the time of her marriage Achsah was
ten years older than her husband. She
was rich, too: Danyrefail, with its stock
of good cattle and a hundred acres of fair

10

A FATHER IN SIGN

land, was her gift to the bridegroom. Six
months after the wedding Sadrach the
Small was born. Tongues wagged that the
boy was a child of sin. Sadrach answered
neither yea nor nay. He answered neither
yea nor nay until the first Communion
Sabbath, when he seized the bread and
wine from Old Shemmi and walked to the
Big Seat. He stood under the pulpit,
the fringe of the minister's Bible-marker
curling on the bald patch on his head.

" Dear people," he proclaimed, the
silver-plated wine cup in one hand, the
bread plate in the other, " it has been said
to me that some of you think Sadrach
the Small was born out of sin. You do
not speak truly. Achsah, dear me, was
frightened by the old bull. The bull
I bought in the September fair. You,
Shemmi, you know the animal. The red-
and-white bull. Well, well, dear people,
Achsah was shocked by him. She was
running away from him, and as she crossed

11

MY PEOPLE

the threshold of Danyrefail, did she not
give birth to Sadrach the Small ? Do
you believe me now, dear people. As the
Lord liveth, this is the truth. Achsah,
Achsah, stand you up now, and say you to
the congregation if this is not right."

Achsah, the babe suckling at her breast,
rose and murmured :

" Sadrach speaks the truth."

Sadrach ate of the bread and drank of
the wine.

Three months after Achsah had been
put in the loft Sadrach set out at daybreak
on a journey to Aberystwith. He re-
turned late at night, and, behold, a strange
woman sat beside him in the horse car ;
and the coming of this strange woman made
life different in Danyrefail. Early in the
day she was astir, bustling up the children,
bidding them fetch the cows, assist with
the milking, feed the pigs, or do whatever
work was in season.

Rachel rebuked Sadrach, saying, " Little
12

A FATHER IN SIGN

father, why for cannot I manage the house
for you ? Indeed now, you have given to
Martha the position that belongs to me,
your eldest daughter."

" What mean you, my dear child ? '
returned Sadrach. " Cast you evil at your
father ? Turn you against him ? Go
you and read your Commandments."

" People are whispering," said Rachel.
" They do even say that you will not be
among the First Men of the Big Seat."

" Martha is a gift from the Big Man,"
answered Sadrach. " She has been sent
to comfort me in my tribulation, and to
mother you, my children."

" Mother ! "

" Tut, tut, Rachel," said Sadrach, " Mar-
tha is only a servant in my house."

Rachel knew that Martha was more than
a servant. Had not her transfer letter been
accepted by Capel Sion, and did she not
occupy Achsah's seat in the family pew ?
Did she not, when it was Sadrach's turn to
13

MY PEOPLE

keep the minister's month, herself on each
of the four Saturdays take a basket laden
with a chicken, two white-hearted cab-
bages, a peck of potatoes, a loaf of bread,
and half a pound of butter to the chapel
house of Capel Sion ? Did she not drive
with Sadrach to market and fair and barter
for his butter and cheese and cattle and
what not ? Did she not tell Ellen the
Weaver's Widow what cloth to weave for
the garments of the children of Achsah ?

These things Martha did ; and Danyre-
fail prospered exceedingly : its possessions
spread even to the other side of Avon Bern.
Sadrach declared in the Seiet that the
Lord was heaping blessings on the head
of His servant. Of all who worshipped in
Sion none was stronger than the male of
Danyrefail ; none more respected. The
congregation elected him to the Big Seat.
Sadrach was a tower of strength unto
Sion.

But in the wake of his prosperity lay
14

A FATHER IN SIGN

vexation. Rachel developed fits ; while
hoeing turnips in the twilight of an after-
noon she shivered and fell, her head rest-
ing in the water ditch that is alongside
the hedge. In the morning Sadrach came
that way with a load of manure.

" Rachel fach," he said, " wake you up
now. What will Martha say if you get
ill ? "

He passed on.

When he came back Rachel had not
moved, and Sadrach drove away, without
noticing the small pool of water which had
gathered over the girl's head. Within
an hour he came again, and said :

" Rachel, Rachel, wake you up. There's
lazy you are."

Rachel was silent. Death had come
before the milking of the cows. Sad-
rach went to the end of the field and
emptied his cart of the manure. Then
he turned and cast Rachel's body into
the cart, and covered it with a sack, and

15

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drove home, singing the hymn which
begins :

" Safely, safely gather'd in,
Far from sorrow, far from sin,
No more childish griefs or fears,
No more sadness, no more tears ;
For the life so young and fair
Now hath passed from earthly care ;
God Himself the soul will keep,
Giving His beloved — sleep."

Esau was kicked by a horse, and was
hurt to his death; six weeks later Simon
gashed his thumb while slicing mangolds,
and he died. Two years went by, by
the end of which period Old lanto, the
gravedigger of Capel Sion, dug three more
graves for the children of Sadrach and
Achsah ; and over these graves Sadrach
and Martha lamented.

But Sadrach the Small brought glad-
ness and cheer to Danyrefail with the
announcement of his desire to wed Sara
Ann, the daughter of Old Shemmi.
Martha and Sadrach agreed to the

16

A FATHER IN SIGN

union provided Old Shemmi gave to his
daughter a stack of hay, a cow in calf, a
heifer, a quantity of bedclothes, and four
cheeses. Old Shemmi, on his part, de-
manded with Sadrach the Small ten
sovereigns, a horse and a cart, and a
bedstead.

The night before the wedding Sadrach
drove Achsah into the fields, and he told
her how the Big Man had looked with
good-will upon Sadrach the Small, and
was giving him Sara Ann to wife.

What occurred in the loft over the cow-
shed before dawn crept in through the
window with the iron bars I cannot tell
you. God can. But the rising sun found
Achsah crouching behind one of the hedges
of the lane that brings you from Dany-
refail to the tramping road, and there
she stayed, her eyes peering through the
foliage, until the procession came by :
first Old Shemmi and Sadrach, with Sa-
drach the Small between them ; then the
c 17

MY PEOPLE

minister of Capel Sion and his wife ; then
the men and the women of the congrega-
tion; and last came Martha and Sara
Ann.

The party disappeared round the bend :
Achsah remained.

"Goodness me," she said to herself.
" There's a large mistake now. Indeed,
indeed, mad am I."

She hurried to the gateway, crossed the
road and entered another field, through
which she ran as hard as she could. She
came to a hedge, and waited.

The procession was passing.

Sadrach and Sadrach the Small.

Achsah doubled a finger.

Among those who followed on the heels
of the minister was Miriam.

Achsah doubled another finger.

The party moved out of sight : Achsah
still waited.

" Sadrach the Small and Miriam ! " she
said, spreading out her doubled-up fingers.

18

A FATHER IX SIGN

' Two. Others ? Esau. Simon. Rachel.
Sarah. Daniel. Samuel. Dear me, where
shall I say they are ? Six. Six of my
children. Mad, mad am I ? " . . . She
laughed. " They are grown, and I didn't
know them."

Achsah waited the third time for
the wedding procession. This time she
scanned each face, but only in the faces
of Sadrach the Small and Miriam did she
recognise her own children. She threw
herself on the grass. Esau and Simon and
Rachel, and Sarah and Daniel and Samuel.
She remembered the circumstances attend-
ing the birth of each. . . . And she had
been a good wife. Never once did she deny
Sadrach his rights. So long as she lasted
she was a woman to him.

" Sadrach the Small and Miriam," she
said.

She rose and went to the graveyard. She
came to the earth under which are Essec
and Shan, Sadrach's father and mother,

19

MY PEOPLE

and at a distance of the space of one grave
from theirs were the graves of six of the
children born of Sadrach and Achsah.
She parted the hair that had fallen over
her face, and traced with her ringers the
letters which formed the names of each
of her six children.

• • • • •

As Sara Ann crossed the threshold of
Danyrefail, and as she set her feet on the
flagstone on which Sadrach the Small is
said to have been born, the door of the
parlour was opened and a lunatic em-
braced her.

20

A HEIFER WITHOUT BLEMISH

21

II

A HEIFER WITHOUT BLEMISH

DEIO and Katto Parcdu had been enter-
taining Job of the Stallion. Having made
an end to eating, and Job and his stallion
having taken to the road, Deio lifted his
voice :

" Tomos, come you in here now."

Tomos passed over the earthen floor
of the kitchen, and discarded his clogs on
the threshold of the lower end, which is the
parlour.

"Job of the old Stallion - does say that
Enoch Dinas has taken a farm near the
shore of Morfa," said Deio.

" Indeed, now, there's a daft boy bach ! "
exclaimed Tomos. " What say you does
23

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Enoch want to do that for ! Sure me,
Dinas is as much as he can manage."

" Is not that what Job did say ? '
spoke Katto.

" Dinas is a fairish farm," said Deio.
" Out of his old head is Enoch to leave it."
44 Sad is Enoch's lot," said Katto. " A
high female is his wife. And an unprofit-
able madam is the female."

" Iss, iss," said Deio. " She is a burden
on the place. Where is the sense now in
Enoch keeping a wife and a servant ? '

"Enoch is head-stiff," said Katto.
44 Did not every one tell him before he
married that he would have to keep a
servant ? For why, dear me, did the iob
marry such a useless woman ? What is
the matter with the female ? She brought
with her nothing to Dinas."

44 Look you at the wife of Tydu," said
Deio gravely. 44 Isn't she a sampler ? '

44 She's as useful as a male about the
place," added Katto. 44 And she works

24

A HEIFER WITHOUT BLEMISH

like a black bach. And Evan her hus-
band is always in his place in the meeting
for prayer."

" Religion comes before all with Evan,"
said Deio.

" Large money indeed he puts in the
Post Office," Katto went on. " Mistress
Morgan of the Post does say that he's got
thirty yellow sovereigns there now. What
pity Tomos cannot find a woman like her."
Tomos came near to the round table,
and bending his crooked body, spat into
the fire.

" Think you now of Sara Jane the

daughter of old Simon " he began.

"Boy bach foolish ! " cried Katto.
" What nonsense you talk out of the back
of your head ! Sober serious, mouth not
that you have thrown gravel at Sara
Jane's window! She's not worth her
broth."

" Katto is right," Deio put in. " There
was me and Katto talking about renting

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Dinas for you if you could find a thrifty,
tidy female."

" How voice you then about Gwen
the widow of Noah?" asked Tomos,
" There's a one she is for tending to the
house ! '

"You would have to pay her," said
Deio. "It is not some one to look after
the house you want. You need a woman
to look after the land, and the cattle,
and your milk, man. And after you. A
woman who will be profitable. Sara Jane,
indeed ! No, boy bach, don't you deal
lightly with Old Simon's wench. Not
respectable is that to Capel Sion."

" Your father speaks sense, Tomos
nice," said Katto. "It's time you
wedded. Do you look round you for one
like the wife of Tydu. Is she not tidy and
saving ? Was she not carting dung into
the field when she was full ? You will be
five over forty in the eleventh month."
Deio took out from his mouth the
26

A HEIFER WITHOUT BLEMISH

tobacco that was therein and placed it on
the table, and he also emptied his mouth
of its tainted spittle. " Be you restful now,
folk bach," he said, " for am I not going to
speak about religion ? " Then he raised
his face and sang after the manner of
the Welsh preacher : "Me and your mam
are full of years, and the hearse from
Capel Sion will soon take us home to the
Big Man's Palace — a home, Tomos, where
we will wear White Shirts, and where
there is no old rent to pay. Tomos,
Tomos, weepful you will be when I am
up above. Little Great One, keep an
eye on Tomos. Be with your son in
Capel Sion. Amen."

When he had made an end, he put the
tobacco back into his mouth, and he said :
" One hundred and half a hundred sove-
reigns is the mortgage on Parcdu now."

" Do you listen, Tomos bach," Katto
counselled her son.

" Go you off yourself to-morrow to the
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April Fair to search for a woman," said
Deio.

Tomos said : " Iss, iss, indeed, then."

" And take you a cask of butter with
you," said Katto. " Leave you the butter
in the back of the old trap till your eyes
have fallen upon a maid ; and when she
has found favour with you, ask her to
sell for you the butter. If she has got a
sharp tongue in her mouth and makes a
good bargain, say to her that you will
marry her, but if she is not free of tongue,
say you nothing more to her, but go in
search of another."

Deio spoke : " Tell her your father sits
in the Big Seat in Sion, in the parish of
Troedfawr, in Shire Cardigan. As earnest
of your intention say that you are com-
manded to buy a heifer to start life with
in Dinas. Now, little son, don't you say
anything about the old mortgage."

Tomos promised to observe his father's
instructions.

28

A HEIFER WITHOUT BLEMISH

" Get you there early in the morning,
then," his father said to him. "Put
the black mare in the car. And, Tomos,
don't you give a ride to anybody, for fear
those old robbers of excisemen will catch
you."

" Make yourself comely," said Katto.
" And when you get there, put out your
belly largely. See too that you get a
heifer without blemish."

Tomos shaved his chin and his long upper
lip and combed his side whiskers, and he
put axle-grease on his boots, and clothed
himself in his Sabbath garments of home-
spun cloth ; and harnessing the black mare
to the car, in the back of which he placed
a cask full of butter, he set out for the Fair
of the month of April. Tomos got out of
the car at Penrhiw, as the ascent therefrom
into Castellybryn is rocky and steep, and
guided the mare by the bridle. At the
foot of the hill — this morning a street
of many people and much cattle — he
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turned into the yard of the Drivers'
Arms.

" Fair morning, Tomos the son of
Deio," said the ostler of the Drivers' Arms
to him.

" Say you have an empty stall, little
son ? ' Tomos asked.

" Surely."

" Fair morning, Tomos. How was
you, man ? And how was your old
father ? "

Tomos turned round and looked into
the face of Job of the Stallion.

" Quite well, thanks be to you, Job
bach."

" What's your errand, boy bach ? Old
Deio your father did not say anything the
day before to-day."

Job, his small feet planted close together
underneath his bandy legs, gazed reproach-
fully at Tomos.

" Well— well," said Tomos, " am I not
selling a cask of butter, man ? '

30

A HEIFER WITHOUT BLEMISH

" There's excuse for you now, dear me ;
old Katto must be mad to send you with
a cask of butter to the fair. Now, now,
Tomos, do you mouth to me then your
errand quick at once."

" For what you don't know that Dinas
is going, man?" replied Tomos.

"But, Tomos, why act so foolish ? Was
not me that told old Deio about it ? '

" Of course. Father wants me to take
it."

" Little Tomos, do you speak plainly.
I am not curious, but what in the name of
goodness are you doing here? Be you
immediate, for have I not a lot of busi-
ness to do ? '

" Job of the Stallion, why you are so
hasty for, man ? Look you, indeed, I am
come for a wife."

Job pouted his lips reprovingly, and he
squeezed the large, cracked mole which
was between his eyebrows with forefinger
and thumb.

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" I blame you, Tomos, for being so
secret about your affairs."

He thought.

" Dango ! " he exclaimed. " There's
Nell Blaenffos. Do you know Nell,
Tomos ? "

" Nell Blaenffos ? "

"You are as stupid as a frog, man.
Blaenffos. Near Henllan. Nell the
daughter of Sam."

" Is she a tidy wench ? '

" For why you make me savage, Tomos ?
Nell is Sam's only child. She is here with
her old father paying off the last of the
mortgage."

Job shouted across the yard into the
inn : " Is Nell Blaenffos there ? "

" Dammo ! ' came the reply. " She
was here this one minute. Nell Blaenffos !
Nell Blaenffos ! "

Many voices repeated the call. They
cried : " Nell Blaenffos ! Nell Blaenffos !
Job of the Stallion wants you."

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A HEIFER WITHOUT BLEMISH

The cry was taken up by folk standing
on the doorstep, and it reached a group of
men and women gossiping in the middle
of the roadway. "Nell fach," said one of
the group, " is not old Job of the Stallion
needing you ? '

" For shame ! ' observed a ponderous-
waisted woman. " What for you are
thinking ? For shame, Nell Blaenffos ! ':

The people laughed.

" Go you, little daughter," said the
large woman, " and see what that old Job
needs you for."

Nell — stout and red of face, and puffing
— appeared before Job, and Job informed
her that Tomos begotten of Deio Parcdu
(this Deio being the strongest farmer in the
parish of Troedfawr, and the saintliest
man in the Big Seat in Capel Sion) was
desirous of taking her into his bed.

Tomos nodded his head, and said :
" Iss — iss. How was you, Nell fach ? "

Nell proved him with questions.
D 33

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Job took Tomos to a corner in the yard,
and held a whispered conversation with
him ; returning he told Nell that Dinas,
a farm of sixty acres, was to be let, that
Deio was prepared to perform his share in
stocking the farm, that as earnest of this
Tomos was authorised that day to buy a
heifer for Dinas.

" You see, Nell fach, that you will have
to be quick, or else the best cattle will be
sold," said Job.

" Dear, dear, now," said Tomos, " I
had forgotten the old cask of butter I
have to sell."

" There, indeed ! " said Job. " Go off
you two together and sell the cask and
talk this thing over. Remember when
you settle down in Dinas that my Stallion
bach is to serve your first mare. Thus
you will pay me for this."

Tomos lifted the cask out of the car
and placed it on Nell's shoulder, and he
followed Nell to the place where butter
34

A HEIFER WITHOUT BLEMISH

merchants assemble. One dealer came
and offered tenpence three-farthings a
pound ; for him Nell refused to remove
even the cloth from the mouth of the cask.
Another came and offered tenpence half-
penny; in reply to him Nell said: "Go
your way, you fool. You would rob
me pure." Now the dealer was a young
man, who did not know the ways of
Castellybryn, and he was aware that
the first dealer was a big buyer and a
cunning bargainer ; so he purchased the
butter for elevenpence farthing a pound,
being a farthing a pound above the
market price of that day.

Tomos took the money and tied his
handkerchief over it, and he bought a
penny cake, and while he was eating it he
said to Nell :

" How speak you about Dinas ? '

" Is the land well watered ? " asked
Nell.

" Iss, indeed."

35

MY PEOPLE

" Is there water in the close ? ':

14 Well, well, not in the close, Nell fach,
but at the bottom of the field under the
house."

"Mouth you now about the out-
houses."

" Enoch had a new roof put over the
stable when he went there four years ago."

" How much money has your father
Deio got ? "

" Now you've asked me a puzzle, Nell
fach. I don't know, for sure ! '

" Is Parcdu his ? "

" Indeed it is."

" Is it mortgaged ? "

" Not for a red penny, Nell Blaenffos."

" How many brothers and sisters have
you got ? "

" Not one, Nell fach."

" Come you back with me to the
Drivers' and mouth to old father."

Sam Blaenffos had already seen Job of
the Stallion and had conversed with him,

36

A HEIFER WITHOUT BLEMISH

and he had been told nothing except that
which was good about Deio Parcdu and
his son Tomos.

" When is the wedding to be, little
son ? " Sam asked Tomos.

" What say you now ? '

" There's plenty of time to discuss
that," said Sam. "Tell you old Deio to
meet me here next market day, and we
will arrange matters."

" I will indeed, man," replied Tomos.

" Good-bye now, and good-bye to your
father as well," said Sam.

Tomos turned his back on the Drivers'
Arms, and on Nell Blaenffos, and on the
father of Nell Blaenffos, and with a hand
in the pocket of his coat and a hand in the
pocket of his trousers he moved slowly
in and out among the cattle. The fingers
of the clock over the door of the surgery
of Dr. Morgan pointed to fifteen minutes
past ten, wherefore Tomos bent his shoul-
ders and rebuked himself :
37

MY PEOPLE

" The morning is far spent. And
there's a small bit of work I've done ! "

When he came that way again the
fingers of the clock pointed to twenty-five
minutes past five in the afternoon, and
there was a pleasing smile in his face, for
was he not leading on a halter a heifer
without blemish ?

38

THE WAY OF THE EARTH

39

Ill

THE WAY OF THE EARTH

SIMON and Beca are waiting for Death.
The ten acres of land over Penrhos^ — their
peat-thatched cottage under the edge of
the moor — grows wilder and weedier. For
Simon and Beca can do nothing now.
Often the mood comes on the broken, help-
less old man to speak to his daughter of
the only thing that troubles him.

" When the time comes, Sara Jane
fach," he says, " don't you hire the old
hearse. Go you down to Dai the son of
Mali, and Isaac the Cobbler, and Dennis
the larger servant of Dan, and Twm
Tybach, and mouth you like this to them :
' Jasto, now, my little father Simon has
gone to wear the White Shirt in the Palace.

41

MY PEOPLE

Come you then and carry him on your
shoulders nice into Sion.' :

" Yea, Sara fach," Beca says, " and
speak you to Lias the Carpenter that you
will give no more than ten over twenty
shillings for the coffin."

Simon adds : " If we perish together,
make you one coffin serve."

Neither Simon nor Beca has further
use for life. Paralysis shattered the old
man the day of Sara Jane's wedding ; the
right side of his face sags, and he is lame
on both his feet. Beca is blind, and she
gropes her way about. Worse than all, they
stand without the gates of Capel Sion — the
living sin of all the land : they were married
after the birth of Sara Jane, and though
in the years of their passion they were
all that a man and woman can be to each
other, they begat no children. But Sion,
jealous that not even his errant sheep
shall lie in the parish graveyard and swell
in appearance those who have worshipped

42

THE WAY OF THE EARTH

the fripperies of the heathen Church, will
embrace them in Death.

The land attached to Penrhos was
changed from sterile moorland into a
fertile garden by Simon and Beca. Great
toil went to the taming of these ten acres
of heather into the most fruitful soil in
the district. Sometimes now Simon drags
himself out into the open and complains
when he sees his garden ; and he calls Beca
to look how the fields are going back to
heatherland. And Beca will rise from her
chair and feel her way past the bed which
stands against the wooden partition, and
as she touches with her right hand the
ashen post that holds up the forehead
of the house she knows she is facing the
fields, and she too will groan, for her
strength and pride are mixed with the soil.

" Sober serious, little Simon," she says,
" this is the way of the earth, man bach."

But she means that it is the way of
mortal flesh ... of her daughter Sara
43

MY PEOPLE

Jane, who will no longer give the land the
labour it requires to keep it clean and
good. Sara Jane has more than she can
do in tending to her five-year-old twins
and her dying parents, and she lets the
fields pass back into wild moorland.

In the days of his sin and might Simon
had been the useful man of Manteg. He
was careless then that the gates of Sion
were closed against him. He possessed
himself of a cart and horse, and became
the carrier between the cartless folk of
Manteg and the townspeople of Castell-
ybryn, eight miles down the valley. He
and Beca saved ; oil lamp nor candle
never lit up their house, and they did not
spend money on coal because peat was to
be lifted just beyond their threshold. They
stinted themselves in halfpennies, gathered
the pennies till they amounted to shillings,
put the silver in a box till they had five
sovereigns' worth of it, and this sum
Simon took to the bank in Castellybryn

44

THE WAY OF THE EARTH

on his next carrier's journey. They looked
to the time their riches would triumph over
even Sion and so open for them the gates
of the temple.

As soon as the Schoolin' allowed her to
leave the Board School, Sara Jane was
made to help Beca in all the farm work,
thus enabling Simon to devote himself
almost entirely to his neighbours. The
man was covetous, and there were mur-
murings that strange sheaves of wheat were
threshed on his floor, that his pigs fattened
on other people's meal.

In accordance with the manner of
labouring women Sara Jane wore clogs
which had iron rims beneath them, grey
stockings of coarse wool that were patched
on the heels and legs with artless darns,
and short petticoats ; in all seasons her
hands were chapped and ugly. Still with
her auburn hair, her firm breast, and her
white teeth, she was the desire of many.
Farm servants ogled her in public places ;
45

MY PEOPLE

farmers' sons lay in wait for her in lonely
places. Men spoke to her frankly, and
with counterfeit smiles in their faces ;
Sara Jane answered their lustful sayings
with lewd laughter, and when the attack
became too pressing she picked up her
petticoats and ran home. Nor was she
put out over the attentions she received :
she was well favoured and she liked to be
desired ; and in the twilight of an evening
her full-bosomed, ripe beauty struck
Simon suddenly as he met her in the
close. Her eyes were dancing with de-
light, and her breast heaving. Sadrach
the Small had chased her right to
Penrhos.

Simon and Beca discussed this that had
happened, and became exceedingly afraid
for her.

" There's an old boy, dear me, for you
indeed ! " said Simon. " The wench fach
is four over twenty now, and fretful I
feel."

46

THE WAY OF THE EARTH

" Iss, iss, Simon," said Beca.

" If she was wedded now, she would be
out of harm."

" Wisdom you mouth, Simon. Good,
serious me, to get her a male."

" How say you then about Josi Cwm-
twrch ? "

" Clap your old lips, little man. Josi
Cwmtwrch ! What has Josi to give her ?
What for you talk about Josi ? "

" Well, well, then. Tidy wench she is,
whatever. And when we go she'll have
the nice little yellow sovereigns in the
bank."

Beca interrupted : " The eggs fetched
three and ten pennies. Another florin
now, Simon, and we've got five yellow
sovereigns."

" Don't say then ! Pity that is. Am I
not taking the old Schoolin's pig to Castell-
ybryn on Friday too? Went you to all
the old nests, woman fach ? "

" Iss, man."

47

MY PEOPLE

" What is old Rhys giving for eggs
now ? "

" Five pennies for six. Big is the for-
tune the cheater is making."

Beca dropped off her outer petticoat and
drew a shawl over her head, and she got
into bed ; an hour later she was followed
by Simon. In the morning she took to
Shop Rhys three shillings' worth of eggs.

This was the slack period between
harvests, and Sara Jane went with Simon
to Castellybryn ; and while Simon was
weighing the Schoolin's pig she wandered
hither and thither, and going over the
bridge which spans Avon Teify she paused
at the window of Jenkins Shop General,
attracted thereto by the soaps and per-
fumes that were displayed.

" How you are ? " said a young man
at her side.

"Man bach, what for you fright me? " said
Sara Jane. She was moved to step away,
for she had heard read that the corners

48

THE WAY OF THE EARTH

of streets are places of great temptation.
The young man — a choice young man and
comely : he wore spectacles, had the front
of his hair trimmed in waves, and his
moustaches ended in thin points — the
young man seized her arm.

" Free you are, boy bach," Sara Jane
cried. " Go you on now ! "

" Come you in and take a small peep at
my shop," said the young man. . . .

When Sara entered her father's cart
she had hidden in the big pocket of her
under-petticoat a cake of scented soap
and a bottle of perfume.

That night she extracted the hobnails
out of the soles of her Sabbath boots. That
night also she collected the eggs, and for
every three she gathered she concealed
one. This she did for two more days, and
the third day she purchased a blouse in
Shop Rhys. For this wastefulness her
parents' wrath was kindled against her.
The next Sunday she secretly used scented
E 49

MY PEOPLE

soap on her face and hands and poured
perfume on her garments ; and towards
evening she traversed to the gateway
where the moorland road breaks into the
tramping way which takes you to Morfa-
on-the-Sea. William Jenkins was waiting
for her, his bicycle against the hedge ; he
was cutting the letters of his name into
the gatepost. On the fourth night Sara
Jane lay awake in bed. She heard the
sound of gravel falling on the window-
pane, and she got up and let in the visitor.

The rumour began to be spread that
William Jenkins, Shop General, was court-
ing in bed with the wench of Penrhos, and
it got to the ears of Simon and Beca.

" What for you want to court William
Shinkins, Shop General, in bed for ? '
said Simon.

" There's bad you are," said Beca.

" Is not Bertha Daviss saying that he
comes up here on his old iron horse ? >:
said Simon.

50

THE WAY OF THE EARTH

" Indeed to goodness," answered Sara
Jane, " what is old Bertha doing out so
late for ? Say she to you that Rhys Shop
was with her ? "

" Speak you with sense, wench fach,"
Beca said to her daughter.

" Is not William Shinkins going to wed
me then ? ': said Sara Jane.

" Glad am I to hear that," said Simon.
" Say you to the boy bach : ' Come you to
Penrhos on the Sabbath, little Shinkins.' !

44 Large gentleman is he," said Sara
Jane.

44 Of course, dear me," said Simon.
"But voice you like that to him."

The Sabbath came, and people on their
way to Capel Sion saw William Jenkins go
up the narrow Roman road to Penrhos,
and they said one to another : " Close will
be the bargaining." Simon was glad that
Sara Jane had found favour in William's
eyes: here was a godly man and one
of substance; he owned a Shop General,
51

MY PEOPLE

his coat was always dry, and he wore a
collar every day in the week, and he re-
ceived many red pennies in the course of
a day. Simon took him out on the moor.

" Shall we talk this business then at
once ? " Mishtir Jenkins observed. " Make
plain Sara Jane's inheritance."

" Much, little boy."

"Penrhos will come to Sara Jane,
then ? "

" Iss, man."

" Right that is, Simon. Wealthy am
I. Do I not own Shop General ? Man
bach, there's a grand business for you ! "

" Don't say ! "

" Move your tongue now about Sara
Jane's wedding portion," said Mishtir
Jenkins.

" Dear me, then, talk will I to Beca
about this thing," answered Simon.

Three months passed by. Sara Jane
moaned because that her breast was hurt-
ful. Beca brewed for her camomile tea,

52

THE WAY OF THE EARTH

but the pains did not go away. Then at
the end of a day Sara Jane told Beca and
Simon how she had done.

" Concubine ! ' cried Beca.

" Harlot ! " cried Simon.

" For sure me, disgrace is this," said
Beca.

Sara Jane straightened her shoulders.

" Samplers bach nice you are ! ' she
said maliciously. " Crafty goats you are.
What did the old Schoolin' use to say
when he called the names in the morning ?
4 Sara Jane, the bastard of Simon and
Beca.' Iss, that's the old Schoolin'. But
William Shinkins will wed me. I shan't
be cut out of the Seiet."

Simon and Beca were distressed.

" Go you down, little Simon, and word
to the boy," said Beca.

" I've nothing to go for," replied
Simon.

" Hap Madlen Tybach need coal ? "

" No — no. Has she not much left ?
53

MY PEOPLE

Did I not look upon the coal when I
fetched the eggs ? '

" Sorrowful it is you can find no errand.
Wise would be to speech to the male bach."

" Dear little me ! I'll go round and ask
the tailor if he is expecting parcels from
the station."

" Do you now. You won't be losing
money if you can find a little errand."

At dawn Simon rose and went to Castell-
ybryn. In going over the bridge of Avon
Teify he halted and closed his eyes and
prayed. This is his prayer : " Powerful
Big Man bach, deal you fair by your little
servant. And if Shinkins, Shop General,
says, ' I am not the father of your wench's
child,' strike him dead. We know he is.
Ask you Bertha Daviss. Have we not
seen his name on the gatepost ? This,
Jesus bach, in the name of the little
White Jesus."

Outside Shop General he called in a
loud voice : " William Shinkins, where he
54

THE WAY OF THE EARTH

is ? " Then he came down and walked
into the parlour where Mishtir Jenkins was
eating.

Simon said : " Sara Jane is with child."

" And say you do that to me," said
Mishtir Jenkins.

" Iss, iss, man. Sore is Beca about it."

" Don't you worry, Simon bach, the
time is long."

" Mishtir Shinkins. There's religious
he is," said Simon, addressing William
Jenkins in the third person, as is the
custom in West Wales when you are
before your betters. " Put him up the
banns now then."

" I will, Simon."

" Tell he me, when shall I say to Beca
thus : ' On such and such a day is the
wedding ' ? Say him a month this day ? "

"All right, Simon. I'll send the old
fly from the Drivers' Arms to bring you
and Sara Jane. Much style there will be.
Did you voice to Beca about the matter ? "

55

MY PEOPLE

" What was that now, indeed, Mishtir
Shinkins ? "

" Why was you so dull ? Sara Jane's
portion, old boy."

"Well-well, iss. Well-well, no. We're
poor in Penrhos, Mishtir Shinkins. Poor."

44 Grudging you are with your money,
Simon Penrhos."

" Don't he say like that. Make speech
will I again with Beca."

Mishtir Jenkins stretched his face to-
wards Simon, and said :

" What would you say, Simon, if I
asked you to give me Sara Jane's portion
this one small minute ? '

" Waggish is his way, little Shinkins
bach," said Simon with pretended good-
humour.

" My father had a farm and sovereigns
and a cow when he wedded."

;' Open my lips to Beca I will about
this," answered Simon.

" Good, very," replied Mishtir Jen-
56

THE WAY OF THE EARTH

kins. " I will say about the wedding,
man, when you bring me Beca's words."

" Shinkins ! Shinkins ! "

" Leave you me half a hundred of
pounds of Sara Jane's portion and I'll
stand by my agreement."

" Joking he is, William Shinkins. Deal
well we will by Sara Jane on the day of
her wedding."

William Shinkins spoke presently. " I
am not a man to go back on my promise
to Sara Jane," he said. " And am I not
one of respect ? '

Simon went home and gave thanks
unto God Who had imparted under-
standing to the heart of William Jenkins.
But folks in Manteg declared that de-
signing men crossed the river in the search
of females to wed. Sara Jane was no
longer ashamed. She went about and
abroad and wore daily the boots from
which she had taken out the hobnails.

On the appointed day the fly came to
57

MY PEOPLE

Penrhos, and Simon and Sara Jane went
away in it : and as they passed through
Manteg Bertha Daviss cried : " People
bach, tell you me where you are going."

Simon told her the glad news.

Bertha waved her hand, and she cried
to the driver: "Boy nice, whip up, whip
up, or you'll have another passenger to
carry."

Mishtir Jenkins met Simon and Sara
Jane at the door of the inn.

"Sara Jane," he said, "stop you out-
side while me and your father expound
to each other."

He took Simon into the stable.

" Did you ask Beca about the yellow
sovereigns ? ' he said.

" Iss, iss. Many sovereigns he will get."

u How many ? "

" Shinkins bach, why for he hurry ?
Bad it looks."

" Sound the figures now, Simon."

" Ten yellow sovereigns, dear me."
58

THE WAY OF THE EARTH

" Simon Penrhos, you and your wench
go home."

" William Shinkins, he knows that Sara
Jane is full. I'll inform against him.
The law of the Sessions I'll put on him.
Indeed I will."

" Am I not making Sara Jane mistress
of Shop General ? Solemn me, serious it is
to wed a woman with child ! "

" There's hard he is, Shinkins. Take
two over ten sovereigns and a little parcel
of potatoes, and a few white cabbages,
and many carrots."

" Is that your best offer, Simon ? '

" It's all we have, little man. We're
poor."

" Go with the wench. Costly the old
fly is for me."

Simon seized Mishtir Jenkins* coat.

"William Shinkins bach," he cried,
"don't he let his anger get the better of
his goodness. Are we not poor ? Accept

he our daughter "

59

MY PEOPLE

" Simon Penrhos, one hundred of pounds
you've got in the bank, man. Give me
that one hundred this morning before the
wedding. If you don't do that you shall

see.':

Simon shivered. He was parting with
his life. It was his life and Beca's life.
She had made it, turning over the heather,
and wringing it penny by penny from the
stubborn earth. He, too, had helped her.
He had served his neighbours, and thieved
from them. He wept.

" He asks too much," he cried. " Too
much."

" Come, now, indeed," said William
Jenkins. " Do you act religious by the
wench fach."

Simon went with him to the bank, and
with a smudge and a cross blotted out
his account. Then he witnessed the com-
pletion of the bargain in Capel Baptists,
which is beyond the Sycamore Tree.

The bridegroom took the bride home to
60

THE WAY OF THE EARTH

Shop General, and he gave half of the
dowry to a broker's man who had been
put in possession. Some of the remaining
fifty sovereigns went to his landlord for
overdue rent, and on the rest William
Jenkins and Sara Jane lived for nearly a
year. Then the broker's man returned,
wherefore William Jenkins gave over the
fight and fled out of the land.

61

THE TALENT THOU GAYEST

63

IV
THE TALENT THOU GAVEST

EBEN the son of Hannah held up his
right arm and displayed the palm of his
hand.

Mishtir Lloyd the Schoolin' said : " Put
your old hand down now," and, gaping his
mouth, proceeded to call out the register.

" Maggie Shones ? "

" Here, iss."

" Eben Tomos ? "

" Here, iss," answered three voices
together.

" For what you do not shut your chins,
you dirty cows ! " said Mishtir Lloyd.
' Why do you all act like old horses with-
F 65

MY PEOPLE

out any gumption ! Now, then, Eben the
son of Sarah the daughter of Silah ? "

"Here, iss."

"Eben, Marl's child by Job of the
Stallion ? "

"Here, iss."

' Eben the son of Hannah the widow
of Will ? "

" Here, iss."

Mishtir Lloyd called by name each of
the eighty-five scholars on his register ;
when he came to the end, he said :

" What for was your hand up just now,
man, Eben the son of Hannah ? '

" Did I not want to tell him, little
Mishtir, that I am not coming to school
any more then ? 5: replied Eben.

" Dear me, dear me, now indeed you are
not coming for why ? 5;

" Mishtir bach, does he not know that
I am going to the moor to mind the sheep
of Shames ? "

" Ho, and you say that ? '
66

THE TALENT THOU GAYEST

Mishtir Lloyd picked up his round
ebony ruler and drew a straight line over
Eben's name on the register.

The next morning at daybreak Eben, a
crust of bread and a piece of cheese in
his trousers pocket, was ready to take up
his duties. Before he went Hannah ad-
dressed these words to him :

" Do you see now, little Eben, that none
of Shames's old sheep go astray, for
Shames is quick to anger. Don't you do
any evil pranks against him, because it is
not meet that Shames shall report us to
the Big Man. Earn every mite of the
shilling a week he gives you, Eben bach.
Do we not need these pennies badly ? Last
year I sacrificed only three half-crowns
to Sion. And for sure the Judge will
inform the Great Male about me."

Eben, having walked over the mile and

a half of heather, and having come to the

point from which you can on a clear day

see the waters of Cardigan Bay, opened the

67

MY PEOPLE

gate of the enclosure in which Shames's
sheep spent the night.

This Eben did every day till he grew
out of knee-breeches into long corduroy
trousers. His life was lonely ; books
were closed against him, because he had
not been taught to read ; and the sense
of the beautiful or the curious in Nature
is slow to awake in the mind of the Welsh
peasant. After a time Eben began to
hold whispered conversations with himself.
Gradually he found consolation in his
voice, the sound of which fell pleasingly
upon his ears. He knew many hymns by
heart, and these hymns he recited to the
shivering heather and the grazing sheep.

One afternoon, his legs dangling over
the edge of the stone quarry, he fell
asleep, and in his dream the Big Man —
a white-bearded, vigorous, stern, elderly
giant, broad as the front of Capel Sion
and taller than the roof — came to him,
saying :

68

THE TALENT THOU GAYEST

" Eben bach, why for now do you waste
your days in sleep ? Go you, little son, and
dig a hole in the place where stood Old
Shaci's hut."

"It'll be a big hole, little Big Man,"
answered Eben, " if I must make it the
size of Old Shaci's hut."

The Big Man replied : " There's a boy
you are for pleading ! Go you up and
stand against the sour apple tree with
your face to the sea. At a distance of
three steps from the trunk of the tree
dig an old hole after the fashion of a
grave."

" Do you tell me now for what ? 3:
Eben asked.

" For sure, is there not a talent buried
there ? "

Eben left Shames's sheep and came to
Penrhos.

"Little Simon," he said, "lend you me
an old pickaxe and a shovel."

Returning, he numbered the sheep, and
69

MY PEOPLE

drove them to the summit of the moor, and
when he came to the mound on which a
hundred years ago Old Shaci built his
hut, he took off his coat and waistcoat,
and dug a hole as deep as a grave and of
the shape of a coffin. But he did not find
anything.

That night the God of Capel Sion came
to Eben again.

" Now that you have got the talent,
Eben bach, do you use it," He said.

" Dear little Big Man," answered
Eben, " there's foolish you talk. Did
I not dig till my old hands were
covered with blisters ? Provokeful you

are.'1

The Big Man spoke : " Eben bach, here
is the talent."

Eben opened his eyes. He sat up in
bed and held out his hands : the dawn
showed grey in his mother's face.

Weeks passed and months passed, and
each night Eben said this prayer :

70

THE TALENT THOU GAYEST

" In God's name to my bed I go,
God keep the hale and those in woe ;
I'll lay my body down to sleep,
I'll give my soul to Christ to keep,
And in the name of God I'll sleep."

Adding :

"God did promise me a talent:
Let Him show me what He meant."

Now in those days the ruler of Capel
Sion was the Respected Bern-Davydd,
famous throughout the land for his singing
eloquence ; thus oftentimes Eben sang
the minister's sayings while he kept guard
over Shames's sheep.

Understanding broke upon him suddenly.

" Dear, dear," he said to himself, " this
is the talent the Great Male gave me. I
am to be a preacher bach."

In the holiness of his joy he rose to his
feet and sang :

" The dear Big Man has given His little
servant a talent. Sheep bach that belong
to Shames, what do you think the talent

71

MY PEOPLE

is now ? He has called Eben the son of
Hannah the widow woman of Will to
preach the Fair Word. Wise indeed is
the White Jesus to give His little servant
the strength to sing the Gospel."

Eben came home and said to his mother
Hannah :

" Mam fach, the talent the Almighty
gave me is for preaching."

" Eben, why you are so vain ? " Hannah
said to him.

But Hannah published the news to
the men who sat in the Big Seat in Capel
Sion, so it came about that Old Bensha of
the Road, in order to prove him, requested
him to say a little prayer in the Seiet.
Beautiful and songlike was the supplica-
tion that Eben offered : he sang mourn-
fully for those at sea, for sinners that wor-
shipped in places other than Capel Sion ;
he sang joyously for the First Men who
occupied the high places, for the many
blessings poured upon the congregation,

72

THE TALENT THOU GAYEST

for the Big Man's gift of His Son to judge
over Sion.

Hannah clothed herself in her most
respectful garments, which were black
and decorated with ornaments of jet and
flowers of crepe, for this is the wear of
the women whose constant thoughts are of
Death and the burial of the dead ; and she
came down to the Shepherd's Abode, where
dwelt the Respected Bern-Davydd.

" Eben bach," she said, " is talking
about being a preacher."

" Religious hearing," said the Judge.
" Have I not had sound of the boy's nice
prayer ? '

" Little holy respected," said Hannah,
" good will it be if in his saintliness he lets
a concert religious be held in the Capel so
that Eben bach can be sent to College
Carmarthen."

" Sure, indeed," answered Bern-Davydd.
" I will cry from the pulpit : ' Buy each
of you a ticket for Eben's concert. Two

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MY PEOPLE

silver shillings is the price, people
bach.' "

When Eben came away from College
Carmarthen his holiness was voiced abroad
the land and three Capels sent him word
to come and rule over them. Of the three
he distinguished the finger of God in the
weakest — Capel Salem in Castellybryn.
In the time of the respected Caleb Daviss
it was said, " A fountain of light is Capel
Salem " ; but the godly Caleb ascended,
whereof the glory departed and the taber-
nacle became as a withered roadside tree
that harbours upon itself all the refuse
the wind brings. Eben summoned the
chief praying men into the Capel every
night for thirty days, to entreat the Lord
to restore the religious lustre of His taber-
nacle. Their prayers were answered :
whereas at the beginning of Eben's minis-
try the congregation could be counted
by the dozen, in two years their numbers
were above any in the shire. His fame

74

THE TALENT THOU GAYEST

spread, and the people called him " Eben
bach the Singer." People said of him :
"He is exalted over all the judges."

But in the high day of his spiritual
prosperity Eben's powers decreased : his
discourses got to be less songlike, he
conversed with rather than preached to
his congregation, and he wrote out his
sermons. Men and women murmured :
" There's pity, now, dear me, about Eben
bach the Singer."

The men of the Big Seat reproached him.

" Well-well, Eben bach, no one wept
again the last Sunday," said Ben Shop
Draper.

" Indeed to goodness, not one c Hale-
lujah ' or ' Amen ' did I hear," said Noah
Shop Boots and Clogs.

" For what he say that life is more than
religion?" asked Ben.

" Little Ben and Noah," replied
Eben, " the Palace must be here on
earth."

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MY PEOPLE

Ben rose from his chair and said :
" Eben bach, an old atheist he is."

" Were he not the ruler," said Noah,
" pray for him I would this one night."

" Listen you to me now," said Eben.
" 1 have not preached to you at all the
real religion. I offered you the White
Palace or the Fiery Pool. Men, men, that
is not right. If you don't live in Heaven
here you won't live in Heaven when
you perish. Look you at Roberts of the
Shop Grocer. Did he not make his servant
Mari very full barely a year after he
stood up in the Seiet and said that he
prayed each night to be taken to Mistress
Roberts ? Did he not cry ' Halelujah ! '
and 'Amen'?"

" Man, man, wrong you are to speak so
about Roberts of the Shop Grocer," said
Ben. " Poor Roberts bach was sorely
tempted, and he is forgiven. And has he
not sent the bad bitch about her business ?
Now think you over these things, and do

76

THE TALENT THOU GAYEST

you not be a blockhead to throw away
your house and one hundred of sovereigns
a year."

So Eben bach the Singer — short, square,
stooping, bushy, sandy hair falling over
his forehead and shoulders like a sheaf of
straw — gave up his house, his one hundred
sovereigns a year, and his charge, and he
returned to the house of his mother. His
name became a proverb and a byword.
The deacons of Capel Sion prayed for him
in private and in public, but the voice of
the singer was silent.

On a day Ben Shop Draper journeyed
to Hannah's cottage.

"Eben, Eben," he cried, "woeful is
the errand I have to speech to you. The
new ruler cannot keep the flock together."

" Ho, indeed."

" You have sinned hardly against Capel
Salem, Eben bach."

" Don't you say that now."

" Iss, indeed. You took the temple in
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MY PEOPLE

marriage. Now you have divorced her.
The Big Man will count this serious against
you, Eben. Dear me, one hundred sove-
reigns and a house, and eight Sabbaths
off in the year."

" How could I preach against my con-
science ? ' asked Eben.

" Look you not at things in that
light, dear man. Suppose now we
give you ten more sovereigns ? Awake
and gather yourself together, and ask
the Big Man bach to show you the
way."

People in the neighbourhood declared
Eben was mad, that he had spewed on
his own glory.

" Gird on your armour," remarked
Lloyd the Schoolin' to him. " Pray to be
rid of the Evil Spirit."

Eben made no answer.

" Wicked you are," proceeded Mishtir
Lloyd. " Has not the Big Man given
you a talent ? '

78

THE TALENT THOU GAYEST

" Iss, iss, for sure : He did give me a
large talent."

" Shame upon you, you old cow, for
throwing it against the Big Man's
teeth."

" But I want to use it," retorted Eben.
" The congregation won't let me, Lloyd
bach. So long as I employed half a talent
all went well."

If at this time you happened to be
taking the cart-road which cuts across
the moor, past the quarry and Old Shaci's
hut, you would have seen Eben sitting on
the fringe of the heather.

Folk who came that way were in the
habit of remarking to him :

" Glad day to you, Eben the son of
Hannah."

Without lifting his eyes, Eben would
reply :

" A glad day to you."

" What you are waiting for, man ? ':

" For the Angel of the Lord."
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MY PEOPLE

" Indeed to goodness now, how will you
know him when he comes ? '

" Sure me, I won't miss him."

The angel came towards the close of a
day. Eben saw him, and greeting him
with a wave of the hand, he hurried to
Penrhos.

" Simon bach," he said, " do you now
lend me your old pickaxe and shovel."

" Man, man," replied Simon, " foolish
you are to begin a job this time of the
night."

" He may not come this way again,"
answered Eben.

Eben hastened over the heather to the
place where Old Shaci's hut was. Taking
off his coat and his waistcoat, and loosen-
ing his braces, he dug a hole in the ground,
a hole deep as a grave and of the shape of
a coffin. In the darkness he stood over the
open grave, his coat buttoned, india-rubber
cuffs on his wrists, his hair, wet with per-
spiration, thrown back over his head.

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THE TALENT THOU GAYEST

" Big Lord," he spoke, " the talent
Thou gavest me brought a great deal of
woe with it. Let Thy angel here, O Big
Man, bear witness now that I return to
Thee Thy talent. And do Thou let me
depart in peace, to make the best use I
can of the half-talent which is mine. . . ."

He opened his hands and spread his
palms over the open grave, as though he
dropped something into it ; and having
prayed he took off his coat, his waistcoat,
and his india-rubber cuffs, and cast the
earth back into the grave.

He returned to his mother's cottage,
and he shaved off his beard, and brought
forth from his box the black coat he wore
in the pulpit ; and in the morning he
clothed himself in his preacher's raiment,
and wrote this message :

" Beloved brothers in God of Capel
Salem, which is in the Castellybryn :

" Your judge has found the way. Hale-
lujah ! Amen ! Glory ! Rejoice with me,
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MY PEOPLE

my brothers. For I have found the true
light. The light that shineth sinners to
repentance ! My brothers, God has told me
to go forth into the vineyard. God has
told me to resume my labours in Capel
Salem. Pray, my beloved, that my labours
will be very fruitful among you. Let not
the matter of the little sovereigns engage
your minds at this joyful time. Has
not our dear brother Ben Shop Draper
arranged all that ?

" Your Ruler in the faith,

"EBEN."

THE GLORY THAT WAS SIGN'S

83

V
THE GLORY THAT WAS SIGN'S

TWM TYBACH was abhorred of Capel Sion.
In all his acts he was evil. He was born
out of sin, and he walked in the company
of loose men. His features were fair, and
he had a rakish eye, before which the heart
of Madlen utterly melted. Now Madlen
owned two pigs, a cow and a heifer, several
heads of poultry, and Tybach, the stone-
walled cottage that is beyond the School-
house. In his fortieth year Twm coveted
Madlen's possessions ; and inasmuch as
Madlen was on the borderline of her woman-
hood she received Twm's advances with joy.
So Twm hired Old Shemmi's horse-car

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MY PEOPLE

and drove Madlen to Castellybryn, where
the two were married in the house of the
registrar. The occasion is memorable to
Madlen because that night she slept in a
virgin's bed, her husband having gone
into the bed of Old Mari who sold sweet
loshins in the market place.

Thereon Twm lived on Madlen. He
poached a little, but he was credited with
more rabbits and hares than he would
risk his liberty to trap ; in season he
pretended to help his neighbours in the
hayfield, but nearly always succeeded in
getting under covert with a woman.

He was as irreligious as an irreligious
Welshman can be. He defied the Big
Man openly ; never except on market and
fair days did he wear his best clothes ; in
passing the Respected Josiah Bryn-Bcvan
and Mistress Bryn-Bevan he kept his cap
on his head and whistled, and once he made
Mistress Bryn-Bevan sick by spitting loudly
on the ground ; he frequented the inn which

86

THE GLORY THAT WAS SIGN'S

is kept by Mistress Shames, where he con-
sorted with the disreputable Shon the Pig
Drover — one without honour in the land.

Six weeks after his wedding Twm was
stricken by illness. The Respected Josiah
Bryn-Bevan, then Judge of Capel Sion,
declared that the Lord was smiting His
enemy, a just fate for all that offendeth
Him. The third day of his illness Twm
crept into the four-poster bed in the
kitchen, and he ordered Madlen to bake
a loaf of leavened bread and to place it
on his belly ; and a stubby beard grew on
his chin.

The evening of that day Dr. Morgan
came by Tybach ; Madlen stopped him,
saying, " Indeed, now, doctor bach, come
him in and give me small counsel about
Twm."

The doctor examined Twm and he said
to him : " Well-well, Twm, you will perish
in a few days."

When Madlen heard this she placed a
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MY PEOPLE

kettle of water on the fire and brought
down her husband's razor from the highest
shelf of the dresser.

Twm's face turned very white, for the
man was afraid of Death.

" There's no chance for you, little
Twm," the doctor said. " You are a
hundred times worse than the boy in
the Bible who took up his old bed and
walked."

The account of how the days of the evil-
favoured Twm Tybach were rounding on
him was carried from mouth to mouth,
and none was sorry. It was told to the
Respected Josiah Bryn-Bevan in Shop
Rhys. The teller of it was Bertha Daviss.
This is what she said :

" Dear me ! Dear me ! The old calf of
Twm Tybach is passing."

" Madlen will want mourning," said
Rhys quickly. " She has not had a death
for many years."

The Respected Josiah Bryn-Bevan was
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THE GLORY THAT WAS SIGN'S

a religious man, and aware of Twm's evil
reputation.

" Indeed to goodness," he said, with
much solemnity. " And you do say so
now, Miss Daviss ? ':

" Iss, iss," said Bertha, addressing the
minister. " Man, man, why for he does
not know that Twm Tybach is a Congre-
gationalist ? Was not old Eva his mother
cut out of the Seiet when Twm was
born ? For sure me, that was so."

" What iobish do you spout, Bertha ! "
said Rhys. " What credit is the scamp
unto Sion ? ':

" Be you merciful, little Rhys," re-
turned the minister. " Do you forgive
others as you need forgiveness."

" Maybe Twm is no credit," observed
Bertha, " but we will have to bury him.
Is not our graveyard the fullest in all the
land ? "

" You say wisely, Bertha Daviss," said
the minister. " You say wisely, Bertha

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MY PEOPLE

fach. Iss not the grave our last home
then ? We must begrudge it to no man.
O little ones, there is largish space in the
Big Man's acre."

44 No, no, Respected bach," cried
Bertha. " For why ? The graveyard is
full. Father was the last to be laid there.
And in comfort did he go up when he
knew of that glory."

Rhys Shop looked upon the minister.
The minister looked upon Bertha : his
gaze travelled from her clogs, her torn
stockings and her turned-over petticoat
to the yellow skin of her face and the
narrow eyes which looked out damply
over her bridgeless nose.

" Woman," he cried at last, " dost thou
speak what thou knowest to be true, or
dost thou repeat unto me — yea, unto me
thy Judge — that which is idle gossip ? ':

"The truth, Bryn-Bevan bach. The
truth."

The minister was confounded. The
90

THE GLORY THAT WAS SIGN'S

muscles of his cheeks moved nervously
under his red beard. Then he arose and
saying, " Fair day, boys bach," but-
toned his frock-coat and grasped his var-
nished stick, and left the shop. Rhys and
Bertha stood by, and when he was gone
they stood in the way of the door and
watched the high, thin, tall-hatted figure
treading heavily down the road towards
Capel Sion; and at the week-night Meet-
ing for Prayer every one there knew that
though the Respected Bryn-Bevan was
blessed with much wisdom, understanding,
and knowledge, the Big Man had loaded
him with a burden heavy to bear.

Never within Capel Sion, nor within
the boundaries of the parish, has been
heard such a plea as that which was spoken
by Bryn-Bevan that night. In the lan-
guage of Adam and Eve he petitioned
that his brother Twm Tybach would find
repentance in the fulness of time, so that
Death would find his putrid body cleansed

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MY PEOPLE

and worthy of burial in the bosom of the
new graveyard.

With the minister's amen, Abel Shones,
the officer for poor relief, rose and sug-
gested a deputation to wait upon the vicar
seeking permission to inter Twm's body
in the church graveyard.

" Very mad is Abel Shones, males bach,"
said Old Shemmi. " When Twm's sins art
forgotten, the Church will claim him as her

own.'

" And possession, dear me, counts for
much in the law," said Sadrach Danyre-
fail.

Lloyd the Schoolin' was for compromise.

" At the entrance to Capel Sion," he
said, " we will put up an old stone on
which is written these words : ' Tomos
Tomos, Tybach, lieth not here. Tomos
lieth in the parish church. Why, dear
people ? Because the graveyard of Capel
Sion was so full that there was no room
for further burials.' :

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THE GLORY THAT WAS SIGN'S

" What's the use of a tombstone,"
asked Old Shemmi, " if there is nothing
under it ? Does a landless man go to
Castellybryn to buy a plough ? ':

" O you people," the Respected Bryn-
Bevan broke in, " you are all wandering
on the moorness. Dear me. Dear me !
Let us now seek deliverance from this
trial which it has pleased God to inflict
upon us. Let them who go to church —
tithe gatherers and the like — be buried in
church ground. Well do we know the
fewness of graves there. We know where
the Angel and the trumpet will be. Our
graveyard, dear ones, is it not the glory
of Sion ? No, indeed then, we cannot
spare one clay. Sit you down now and
reason with one another."

" Very suitable," observed Old Shemmi,
" is the field over Abel Shones's house."

" I am not afraid to enter the Palace,"
said Abel. " But, friends bach, does not my
drinking-water come through that field ? "

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MY PEOPLE

Wherefore the wrath of the minister
waxed hot against Abel.

" None except a dirty old atheist,"
the Respected Bryn-Bevan said, " would
bring materialism to bear upon a sacred
subject. It is the water of life that
matters, Abel Shones."

Great is the Respected Josiah Bryn-
Bevan.

Abel protested against the use of para-
bles in debate.

41 Dost thou then not believe in the
Parables ? " shouted the minister. " Come
ye now, speak. O man, man, where dost
thou expect to go to when thou hast
shuffled off thy carnal garments? Dost
thou expect to wear the White Shirt ? "

At the end of the Big Seat Abel Shones
was praying for Old Shemmi ; now as
Shemmi saw and heard this thing he too
fell on his knees and prayed for the cure
of Twm Tybach. Lloyd the Schoolin',
having taken off his boots, stood on the

94

THE GLORY THAT WAS SIGN'S

seat of his pew, asking God to repent
of His intention of spoiling Capel Sion as
He had done with Sodom and Gomorrah.
" Don't you now, little Big Man," he
prayed, " be influenced either this way or
that way by their talk. Think you to
yourself, they do not know what they
do." To this day the hour that remark
was uttered is a memorial to the occur-
rence, for the congregation turned their
faces to the clock, whose hands they did
not think would move again.

" Brethren " — Mishtir Bryn - Bevan's
voice rose above the noises — " Brethren,
at this moment Twm Tybach may be
passing into the Pool."

The First Men saw that Bryn-Bevan's
counsel was good, and they discussed and
disputed, and it came to be that Old
Shemmi's scheme was adopted.

This field belonged to the squire,
who regarded any one trading under the
name of Nonconformist as a thief and a

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MY PEOPLE

quibbler. In his dealings with the kind
the squire acted through his lawyer, and
therefore many days had to pass before the
ground would be transferred to Capel Sion.

Meanwhile those who worshipped in
Sion were commanded to pray without
ceasing that Twm's life would not end
until the new burial place came into
Sion's possession. But in spite of all
the prayers each hour seemed to take
Twm nearer the parish church. Three
times in one day Madlen laid her black
gown over the foot of the bed ; three
times she took the razor out of its case.

Many came to Tybach and prayed by
Twm's bedside; some came from a distance,
and they arrived weary and refreshed them-
selves with tea which Madlen brewed for
them ; and every visitor brought a present.
The sick man was tempted with offerings
of tins of sardines and corned beef, jars
of red cabbage pickles and home-made
jams. Mistress Bryn-Bevan sent a bottle

96

THE GLORY THAT WAS SIGN'S

of rhubarb wine. The man was angry
when he was told that it would not
make anyone drunk. Every night Rhys
Shop came with a quarter of a pound of
biscuits which he laid on the pillow, and
he also brought with him samples of black
materials which were suitable for mourn-
ful garments.

Even the Respected Josiah Bryn-Bevan
came and stood over Twm's bed. Twm
opened his eyes and said he thought his
visitor was Shon the Pig Drover.

" Twm ! " Madlen cried. " Shameful
you are ! There's a squirrel for you ! Say
something religious to our little Judge."

The minister sat on the window-sill and
said : " Twm, indeed for sure, glad you
ought to be, sinner bach, that you are to
be laid in little Capel Sion."

If ever the minister was inclined to the
sin of unbelief in death-bed repentance
it was when he heard Twm's answer and
saw Twm's face.

H 97

MY PEOPLE

"O Twm," he said, " there's glory that
is awaiting for you, man. After many
years I will come to Capel Sion with
my grandchildren and I will show them
your grave and say to them, ' This is the
grave of Tomos Tomos, Tybach. He
was buried the day the graveyard was
opened.' :

But Twm hardened his heart and would
not take any comfort from the words of
the Ruler of Capel Sion.

" Shon bach," he whimpered, " would
be nice to me."

" You have been a bad man, Twm,"
the minister sang. " But now you are
coming into a heritage of splendour.
Come forth from your house of bondage.
I am your deliverer, and I will walk
before your coffin, Twm bach, to your
last home in Capel Sion."

Twm turned his face to the wall ; and
he tried to stuff his ears with the ends of
the patchwork quilt that covered him.

98

THE GLORY THAT WAS SIGN'S

The minister went away, and he said
to his congregation :

" Be comforted. Twm will be buried
in the new little burial-ground."

Time wore on. The title deeds of the
new burial-ground were made over to the
First Men, and Capel Sion lifted his head
and murmured, " The glory of Sion is
not departed."

Although light flickered in the window
of Tybach throughout several nights ;
although many saw the Candle of the
Corpse — that spirit light which foretells
death — going out of the house and along
the road to Capel Sion ; although Madlen
herself heard the moan of the Spirit
Hound, Twm did not die.

People did not come any more to
Tybach, and the praying men ceased to
pray for Twm ; for they knew he would
die, and whether he liked it or not his
sinful bones would rest in the land that
was the glory of Capel Sion.

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MY PEOPLE

Late one night Twm told Madlen to
read to him about the man who took up
his bed and walked. Barely had Madlen
begun her reading than Twm groaned and
gurgled.

" The end," said Madlen to herself.
" Twm bach is in the Jordan."

She moved to the bed ; Twm's eyes
were opened. She closed them. His
face was grey as if the Angel of Death
had cast the down from his wings
upon it.

The kettle was singing on the hob ;
Madlen shifted it on to the live coals, and
she took the razor out of its case and
stropped it on the leather which hung on
the bedpost. Twm heard the hissing of
the kettle, and he also heard the sound the
flat of the blade made on the leather ; and
he understood. He put his fingers through
the stubby beard which had grown on his
chin. A fear came over him. He threw
back the clothes which covered him, and
100

THE GLORY THAT WAS SIGN'S

wrapped around him the patchwork quilt,
and he went and sat by the fire.

" Madlen ! " he cried. " Little Madlen,
is not the old kettle boiling then ? There's
slow mule you are ! Come, make you a
cup of tea now."

From first to last Twm's years were
five-and-forty.

101

THE DEVIL IN EDEN

103

VI
THE DEVIL IN EDEN

IF ever the innermost meaning of the Word
was in dispute in Capel Sion the Big Man
sent an angel in a cloud with a message to
Old lanto of the Road, and this message
Old lanto interpreted to the congregation.
Thus, honoured above men, lanto got
puffed up and vain-glorious, whereat the
Big Man sent a tempter to test him.

The tempter, in the flesh of a tramp,
came to Manteg in the quiet of a Sabbath
eve, and he found lanto setting his
thoughts in tune with Sion on the bank of
the waters which are against the hedge of
Abel Shones's garden.

The tramp stood over Old lanto, and
spoke to him :

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MY PEOPLE

" Tell you me now how far I am from
the poorhouse of Castellybryn."

" Man, man," answered lanto, " you're
seven miles good and more."

Although it was then dusk the tempter
made no move to pass on his journey.

" You seem weary, man bach," re-
marked lanto.

" Indeed to goodness now, weary I am,"
answered the tramp.

" Sit you down and rest your little old
feet," lanto counselled him.

The tramp removed his shoes. His feet
were blistered, wherefore he rebuked the
sun and its heat and the stones on the
roads, and they were dusty.

" Say from where you are, boy bach
nice ? " asked lanto.

" From far enough, small male, not to
want to walk another step."

" Say you where you hail from and
your place of abode."

" The foxes in the fields have their
106

THE DEVIL IN EDEN

holes," was the reply, " the birds of the
air their nests, but I have nowhere to lay
my head."

Old lanto turned his face upon the figure
on the ground, saying :

" For what you say that ? Dear, dear,
has not the little Big Man said, 4 Ye are of
more value than many sparrows ' ? "

" Nowhere to lay this old head," the
tempter repeated through his thick lips.

" Welshman too ! ': exclaimed lanto.
" Not religious are your words, man.
What for you don't know that you utter
these vain things in the Garden of Eden ?
Open your eyes, and look you. Does not
this river break out into four little heads ?
Saw you Shop Rhys as you came by ?
There the Creator placed Adam, and was
not Adam the first sinner ? Behind you
is the evil tree, boy bach. See you how
crooked the old trunk is ! And here just
is the spring that gave Eva fresh water
to brew tea."

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MY PEOPLE

The tempter opened his heavy eyelids
and said :

44 You male alive, now why you are not
a preacher ? '

lanto's heart rejoiced.

" Iss, indeed," he said, " this is the
Garden spoken of in the Book of Words.
The nice Respected Ruler of the Lord in
Capel Sion says that Eva ate of the
sour apples on the tree. Does not Abel
Shones still pray for Eva ? '

" Who is Abel Shones, whatever ? ':
asked the tramp.

" He is the officer for Poor Relief,"
answered lanto. " Wise indeed is Abel.
Dear man, you should hear him praying !
Asking the Big Man to help him find out
wrong-doers."

44 Ho, ho, and you say like that ! "
said the tempter.

Then Old lanto sang, and this is what
he sang :

44 Iss, iss, dear man. This is the Gar-
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THE DEVIL IN EDEN

den of Eden. This is the beginning of
the world. Goodness me, here was put
breath into clay; here God gave Adam
the tongue that I am speaking in now."
The song finished, the tempter said:
" Woe my poor flesh ! I am tired."
" Of course, of course," said lanto ;
and he raised his long, thin legs from the
ground. " Do you come with me, dear
stranger, and tarry a while in my house.
But first put on your old shoes, for it is
not seemly to go about in bare feet on the
eve of the Sabbath."

lanto took the tramp home, and he
bade his daughter Dinah warm up a bowl
of broth and lay it before his guest ; and
while the tempter ate of the broth and
bread, lanto, preparing for the Sabbath
when none shall work, went to the stream
and cleansed his hands and face with
small gravel ; and when he was returned
to the house he sheared the ends of his
beard.

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MY PEOPLE

The tempter having eaten his meal,
pulled off his shoes and lit his pipe.

" Do you ever pray, one's brother
bach ? " asked lanto.

" Brother, indeed ! " said Dinah.

"Hold thy chin, little Dinah," lanto
reproved her. " Brother I mean in the
spirit rather than in the letter. Brother
bach, do you pray steadfast ? '

" What a question, dear me ! " answered
the tempter. " Indeed, do I not live by
faith ? "

lanto placed a bunch of tobacco inside
his right cheek, and the black mole thereon
moved up and down and in and out in
progress with it.

" Come you now," said Dinah, " speak
you your name."

44 Michael," said the tempter.

lanto opened his Bible and read. After-
wards he removed the tobacco from his
mouth and laid it on the table, and he
reported to God with a clean mouth.
110

THE DEVIL IN EDEN

When he had risen from his knees and
had shaken the stiffness out of his joints,
Dinah addressed him :

"Little father, for why you are an old
mule ? Shame on you to bring here a dirty,
bad tramp. What then will folk say ?
Tell you him to go about his business."

"Hush, hush, Dinah. Say you not so.
4 Inasmuch as ye do unto the least of my
little ones.' Michael is tired. Look you ! "

The tramp had fallen asleep ; a silver
line of spittle ran from his lips along the
stem of his pipe, dropping from the base
of the bowl.

lanto wound up his watch, and took
off his clothes, and stepped over the mud
floor to his bed, which stood against the
nailed-down window-frame.

Dinah rested her elbows on her stock-
inged knees, and she settled her eyes on
the sleeping stranger — a muscular figure
with tanned, hairy skin showing under his
buttonless shirt.

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MY PEOPLE

Old lanto spoke from his bed :

"Dinah, go you off to your loft now.
Indulge in no evil thoughts concerning
Michael. Think you no less of him, little
daughter, because the Big Man has not
blessed him with much."

Dinah untied the tape which held her
skirt around her waist, and removed the
cotton bodice which covered her loosely
hanging breasts, and went up the ladder
into the loft.

In the morning she baked a loaf of
plank bread, which with a bowl of
milk warm from the cow she laid
before the tramp. To her father she
observed :

14 1 think that old serpent of a straggler
can abide here a time, and help to do
something about the place. What say
you now if he set to mend the wall of the
pigsty?"

The tempter fattened many days in
lanto's house. He built a new wall to
112

THE DEVIL IN EDEN

the pigsty and on the inside of the door of
the cowshed he contrived a trickish bolt.

On the afternoon of the second Sunday
after his coming he fondled Dinah and
made mischief with her, and when they
had committed their sin, the woman was
revengeful, and she cried to him :

" Go your way ! Take to the dung-
hill ! You lout ! For sure I will shout
your wickedness." She seized his head
and clawed his scalp, until the tramp's
hair was dyed red.

But Michael understood the ways of
women, and Dinah, far from divulging what
had taken place, went out in the darkness
of that night, and when she had secured
the door she laid with him on a little
straw spread on the floor of the cow-stall.

In the ripeness of time Dinah sorely
repented herself, and was much shamed ;
she drew in the seams of her garments, and
pressed herself as butter is pressed into
an over-full cask.

I 113

MY PEOPLE

People remarked her, and said things
one to another.

lanto spoke to his daughter.

" Bad you were to go out of your way
to tempt poor Michael. Tell you the boy
bach that it's good for him to get beyond
the sense of your wickedness."

Dinah acted ; she said to Michael :

" Get you out of our home, the old
hen ! Get away off, else I'll stick this old
pitchfork in your eyes."

Michael grew feared, and departed;
and in a week he came back.

" Sure, dear me, now," he observed to
lanto, " you won't turn your guest into
the highway. Let me rest in your house
for a small period."

" Remain here as long as you like, little
son," replied lanto. " But steel your
heart against the wiles of my wench."

During the month which followed Dinah
employed divers methods to rid the house
of Michael. On a day she said to him :
114

THE DEVIL IN EDEN

" Off now, you boy bach, and buy two
pounds of sugar in Shop Rhys. Take
you this silver little sixpence." On
another day she said to him : "Go off,
now indeed to death, and change these
eggs for money at Shop Rhys," and she
gave him thirty eggs, each egg worth a
penny. Yet on another day she said to
him : "A broom I must have. Take a
shilling and buy one in Shop Rhys."
But Michael, to her great distress, per-
formed these errands faithfully.

In the twilight of an afternoon Dinah
was preparing lanto's supper. Michael
was sleeping in a chair under the chimney.
The room was illumined by a thin light
from the fire ; Dinah turned around, and
she beheld that Michael's feet were cloven
hoofs, and that from his head there came
forth two horns. In the twinkling of
an eye she knew whom she had been
entertaining. Hastening into the lower
parlour, she placed the palms of her
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MY PEOPLE

hands on the cover of the Bible and
prayed :

11 In the name of the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost, get thee behind me, Satan.
Jesus bach, be with your Ruler in Capel
Sion. Amen."

She re-entered the kitchen.

" Michael, man," she said, " how say
you to a nice cup bach of tea? "

" Iss, indeed, Dinah," answered the
tramp.

Dinah lifted an empty tin pitcher.

" Dear now," she exclaimed, " what
pity ! There's not a drop of water. Go
you and draw some."

The tramp pushed his feet into his clogs.

" Give me the old pitcher then," he
said.

" Have I not need of the pitcher for
milking ? ' Dinah said.

" I'll bring it in the bucket that is
outside the pigsty," said Michael, walking
towards the door.

116

THE DEVIL IN EDEN

" Don't you be dirty, boy bach," cried
Dinah. " That bucket is for the pigs'
wash."

Michael had moved to the threshold
and was holding the door ajar. He looked
along the road and saw that Abel Shones,
the officer for Poor Relief, was running
to the house.

He came back into the kitchen.

"What shall I fetch it in, then?" he
asked. "Be you hasty now, for am I
not thirsty ? "

" Dear me, what a calf you are, man !
Bring it in this," and Dinah gave him the
cinder sifter.

•Since these things happened Dinah has
been blessed with second-sight and
visionary power. On dark nights she
goes to the well and mocks the Angel
Michael, who until he performs the task
that is set him, will remain upon the
earth in the flesh of a tramp.

117

THE WOMAN WHO SOWED
INIQUITY

119

VII

THE WOMAN WHO SOWED
INIQUITY

THIS is the chronicle of Betti Lancoch,
who was the daughter of Essec, the Essec
of whom is written on his gravestone
that he was possessed of two farms named
Lancoch and Llanwen, that he had a
name among the religious men of the
Big Seat in Capel Sion. On Essec's
death Betti's inheritance was Lancoch,
which is the smaller of the farms ; and
the inheritance of her brother Joshua was
Llanwen.

Until her thirtieth year Betti was a

princess in Sion. Her wealth was a prize

for which many intrigued and prayed ;

and although much gravel was thrown

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MY PEOPLE

at her window at nights she did not
give herself to anyone.

Her brother Joshua looked very keenly
after her interests. He was anxious that
she should marry a godly, humble man,
and from the tales he told her, godly,
humble men were scarce in the land.
Even the character of Rhys Shop was
shown in a bad light when he got to know
how the white-faced, big-paunched shop-
keeper one night tried to climb up the
wall to the room wherein Betti slept.
Joshua was married himself, and did not
find much pleasure, he said, in it, and he
wished to keep his sister as free and happy
and pure as the Big Man had ordained
she should remain. For he managed the
selling of most of the produce of Lancoch
and paid himself, one way or another,
for his trouble.

Betti answered only too well to her
brother's skilful guiding. She did not open
the window of her room to any man in
122

THE WOMAN WHO SOWED INIQUITY

Capel Sion or in the place around. Now
on an August day she went to Eistedd-
fod Castellybryn and there met Gwylim,
the son of Silah and Tim, farmers in the
Vale of Towy. . . . Gwylim came and
courted Betti in full daylight, where-
fore the men of Sion grew angry, and
they called on Joshua and said to him :
" Speak you to her, little Josh, for is
she not your sister, man?" Joshua took
counsel of God. God answered him by
a dream. "Well-well, Josh bach," He
said, " very terrible is this about the wench
Betti. Windy is the female. Command
you her to remain unwed. Moreover, not
right for her to take a husband away from
Capel Sion. Ach y fi ! Giving her farm and
pennies and silver and yellow gold to a
male who worships trappings and cere-
monials in the old church ! Be you wrath-
ful with her in My name." Joshua spoke
these words, and more, to his sister, but
Betti refused to turn from her way, for
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MY PEOPLE

which reason Joshua and the men of Capel
Sion were disquieted, and they asked
God to deal according to His wisdom with
this woman who wilfully strayed from
the path of the religious.

Betti jerked her freckled face and
snapped her fingers, and boasted in the
security of her riches : " Goodness me,
must then I be instructed in my doings
by a pack of old hens ? Sure now, I am
not beholden to any in Capel Sion."

In the foolishness of her vanity she
curled her yellow hair like a Jezebel, and
she fashioned the front of her hair into a
fringe which she wore over her forehead.
Her brother Joshua came to her from
Llanwen.

Betti, heedless of the cow lowing to be
milked, was tying up her hair before a
looking-glass.

"Woman," cried Joshua, beholding what
his sister was doing, " have you no shame ?
Will you bring discredit on me then ? '
124

THE WOMAN WHO SOWED INIQUITY

" Josh bach, there's good you are to
call, man. Do you take this bucket of
wash to the old pigs, and ask Madlen
Tybach to come over and milk the cow
on your way home."

" My sister Betti, for what you do not
know that the wages of sin is death ? "
said Joshua.

44 Don't you get savage, Josh. Am I
not making myself look pretty for to
see Gwylim's father and mother to-
morrow ? "

44 Pretty ! This too on the eve of the
Sabbath ! Is not a pretty woman a snare
to the godly ? Look you at Potiphar's
wife now."

44 Josh, indeed to goodness, what a
talkist you are ! "

44 Dear me, what will Priscila say when
I tell her ? But then Priscila is content to
stand where the little Big King has placed
her — an angel ministering to me and my
children."

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MY PEOPLE

"What do I count what Priscila thinks !
Clap your lips, Josh bach."

44 Don't you say wicked sayings now,
Betti fach," Joshua advised her. " Speech
you not that. Be you reasonable, my
girl."

14 So that is why you've come here ? '

Joshua leaned his body against the
dresser, and drew his clog from his right
foot and removed the dirt that had
gathered on the sole between the iron
rims ; and he closed his mouth so that
the projecting birth-tooth in the middle
of it clawed his lower lip.

44 The Big Man brought my feet here,
Betti fach," he remarked at last. 4' Listen
you to me now. How would you say
if I mouthed this to you : 4 Betti the
daughter of Essec, this bit of land is very
vexatious to you. You don't get the best
from it. Let me, your religious brother
Joshua, trim it for you, and come you
and live with us in Llanwen."
126

THE WOMAN WHO SOWED INIQUITY

" Josh, indeed you are leaving Gwylim
out ! "

" Gwylim ! You are not intent on
wedding Gwylim ? '

" Iss, man bach, I am. Think you I
curl my hair for Rhys Shop ? Think you
I bought this nice white petticoat for
him? Dear, there's dense."

" Mercy me, what a bad wench you
are 1 " cried Joshua. " Have you not
heard what a dissipated boy Gwylim is ?
Heard you not of his doings and his
cheatings over cattle ? Turn you away
from your purpose, and act as I bid you."

** I shall wed him in front of all you
say, Josh," said Betti. "Boy bach
swellish is Gwylim."

" O Betti, is it a light thing to you that
you take your possessions to a man who
never goes to capel ? 5:

" Little man senseless, you are eloquent !
Do you think I could live for ten minutes
with that old hare of your wife Priscila ? "
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MY PEOPLE

Rhys Shop proclaimed in the Seiet
that the Terrible Man's anger was like
the pierce of a new pitchfork against
Betti Lancoch. Joshua fell on his knees
in his pew, wept, and prayed. Thus the
Lord comforts His children : when Joshua
arose, lo, his eyes were dry, and he turned
his face upon the Big Seat, and addressed
the men of the high places of Capel Sion.
He said :

14 Little people, I pray you now not to
think too harshly of me because my sister
brings this abomination upon the nice
Capel. Look you mercifully upon my
affliction. Priscila fach is badly cut about
it. She is not here to-night. You know
how it is with Priscila — how the Big
Father is blessing her with another child.
The Lord, little people, will administer
the rod of correction on this slut who so
shamelessly sows the seeds of iniquity ; she
will reap vanity. Stand you by me and
Capel Sion : if I am wrong, sure indeed the
128

THE WOMAN WHO SOWED INIQUITY

Big Man will send a message to Sadrach
Danyrefail here."

Worshippers on their way to Capel Sion
the preceding Sunday had shuddered at
the sight of Betti Lancoch flaunting her-
self in fine garments. Rhys Shop spoke
to her :

" Whisper you to me now where you
are going."

44 To the abode of Gwylim's people,"
replied Betti.

44 And you say so now. There's going
to be a wedding, then ? "

44 Iss, iss, Rhys Shop," Betti answered,
and in her ostentatious pride she lifted
her frock and displayed the skirt of her
white petticoat.

Rhys bent himself and examined the
material from which it had been made.

44Jasto!" he cried. "Tell you me
now if you paid a shilling except a half-
penny a yard for this ? "

Betti laughed.
K 129

MY PEOPLE

" Didn't you now, Betti fach ? " Rhys
persisted. "Beautiful and useful is the
cloth in the Shop that will do for your
wedding gown. It is only half a crown a
yard too. But there, don't you think any
more about it. ... Little white Jesu^
forgive me for saying like this on the
Sabbath. Dear me, forgetful male I was !
Be with your Ruler in Sion. Amen."

"Sabbath or no Sabbath, Rhys Shop, I
will not buy my wedding gown from you.
To Carmarthen will I journey and get it
from the grand shop of Llewellyn Shones
in the market."

Rhys then walked with Bertha Daviss,
to whom he spoke these words :

" Little Bertha, Abishag has gone by."

So Gwylim and Betti were married, and
all in and around Lancoch having been
sold and the house and the land having
been rented, they went to live in the town
of Carmarthen ; and the house of their
abode has ten stone steps in the front of
130

THE WOMAN WHO SOWED INIQUITY

it, and it is named Avon Towy because
that river is the distance of a field
beyond it. A year after her mar-
riage Betti came to Manteg with her
child, and she magnified brazenly the
fortune of her husband. But she did not
say anything of the occasions that he had
come home drunk, or of the times when he
had struck her with the ring end of his razor
strop ; nor did she show to any one the
sore that was on her left breast.

The man Gwylim was foolish in his drink.
He backed a bill for twenty sovereigns,
and when one came to redeem it he had
nothing with which to pay the price. He
went to his father's house and said how
this and that evil had befallen him.

" Give you the boy bach the money,"
said Silah to her husband Tim. " Give
you him the money. This is not his fault,
Little Tim. Is he not wedded to a sloth-
ful woman ? '

Old Silah loved her son, and she
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MY PEOPLE

killed for him a chicken and laid it before
him. Gwylim was crafty and charged
himself falsely, saying : " An old rascal
am I to bring this upon you ; " therefore
Old Silah murmured in his hearing this
lullaby :

" Pity such a concubine snared you,
little Gwylim, my son bach."

Old Silah's lullaby lodged itself in
Gwylim's brain ; and drank he never so
deep nor got he never so muddled, he
remembered it always. It was as if the
words were the first words he had been
taught to utter.

Betti ceased to visit Manteg ; she rarely
went out of her house. Always she was
either with child or she bore some mark
of her husband's savagery : often both
stopped her from going abroad. In com-
mon with the women of her race constant
child-bearing made her slovenly and sallow.
With the birth of her fifth boy arrived
her first act of humiliation : she wrote
132

THE WOMAN WHO SOWED INIQUITY

to her brother Joshua for the loan of
thirty sovereigns. Joshua answered that
he would lend her fifteen sovereigns pro-
vided she signed a bill of sale on Lancoch.

Betti hid away the money in a decanter.

Now it happened that on an afternoon
Gwylim was very drunken, and he came
to the decanter in which the money
was hidden.

" Fiery Pool ! " he shouted. " Where
did you get this from ? Oh, you've been
whoring. You concubine ! You slut ! "

His rage was so great that he scattered
the gold on the floor. Then he gathered
it up and went out, and to all whom he
met he groaned that a harlot had lured
him and that a harlot was the mother of
his children. " Did not the old mam say,"
he cried, " ' Pity the bitch of a concubine
snared you, boy bach ' ? "

In the morning of the day Betti opened
the door of her house, and she saw that
Gwylim was fallen at the foot of the stone
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MY PEOPLE

steps, his head resting on the first step.
She carried him into the house and took
off his clothes and put him into bed. Be-
fore the end of the day Betti thanked God
that paralysis had gripped him. Two
months later a hearse took away his body
to the consecrated ground where Silah and
Tim will some time join him. He will rest
between them.

Betti, a widow woman with five children,
returned to Manteg ; and in Manteg none
said to her " How be things with you,
Betti fach ? " for is it not known that the
woman who sows iniquity shall reap the
fruits thereof?

Out of the wreckage she had saved
enough to provide Lancoch with a poor
cow, a couple of pigs, and a few hens. She
tilled the soil as well as a woman without
implements can till it. But stray cattle
wandered into her fields because of the
broken hedges, and late in the springtime
a herd of cows spent a night in her garden.
134

THE WOMAN WHO SOWED INIQUITY

These cows belonged to her brother
Joshua.

Betti then said to Joshua : "I might
indeed as well not have touched my garden,
Josh ; your old cows have trampled on
all my little beds."

Joshua replied : " Well-well, Betti fach,
for why you do not keep your hedges
in trim, then ? Dear, dear, you are like
the foolish virgins."

;c Keep you your cows under eye,"
Betti answered.

c What a wicked tongue you have,
Betti ! " answered Joshua. " To think
that we both come of the same religious
father ! "

Betti made no reply.

" And Betti," Joshua resumed, " the
five over ten sovereigns are more than
due now. Give them to me."

ic Five over ten sovereigns ? "

" Iss, iss. Dear me, it's a long time
since I lent them to you. Much did I
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MY PEOPLE

sacrifice for this. But I couldn't think of
you going in want, Betti fach. No, no,
are you not my own flesh and blood ?
Of course, you won't anger the Big Man
by trying to cheat your brother, will
you ? "

" I haven't any yellow gold," Betti
answered. " I don't know where to get it,
unless I sell Lancoch. Indeed, I've been
unlucky since I've had the place."

44 Betti, for shame ! Don't you blas-
pheme. It's the Big Man's way. And
it will be sinful to sell Lancoch. Did not
our father and grandfather live here ? "

44 What else can I do ? You must have
the money ? '

44 According to the law, Betti fach,
Lancoch is mine if pay you cannot."

44 Lancoch was given to me."

44 For surely, Betti fach. For surely.
But did you not sign the little agree-
ment ? "

44 Agreement or no, Lancoch is mine."
136

THE WOMAN WHO SOWED INIQUITY

Joshua took possession of the land
around Lancoch. He put up new gates,
and repaired the hedges, and divers times
he drove Betti's cow out of the fields
into the roadway. It was a dry summer,
and water was scarce in the ditches
that are alongside the roads ; Betti's cow
went thirsty for three days, and then she
laid herself down on the moor whither
she had wandered, and perished.

Joshua turned in at Lancoch.

" Little Betti," he said, " grave is
the news I have for you. Priscila has
promised Lancoch to Hugh the Stone-
mason."

" You want me to go off ? 5:

" Glad I'll be if you go off, Betti fach."

" Where ? "

" Pity now you didn't take the offer
to come and live in Llanwen. I can't go
back on Priscila's word to Hugh. And
he'll be handy about the place. There's
the money too. Josh the Small is costing
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MY PEOPLE

me a deal now. Educating a boy to be a
little preacher does take a lot of money,
Betti. But I am only lending to the
Big Man."

Betti broke in : " Josh, I've been a
foolish woman. I rejected your counsel,
and I mocked the Man of Terror. But
I am humbled now, Josh bach. All the
stiffness has gone out of me. And the
Big Man is angry with me."

" Repent you, Betti fach, and He will
forgive you."

" Little Josh, I have passed through the
Pool since I wedded Gwylim. Oh, Josh,"
Betti cried, " deal gently with your sister
nice. Turn you not me out of my home.
What is the rent to you ? Listen you to
my plea, there's a boy bach."

" I would now, indeed, but you see
Priscila has given her word "

The infant nestling against Betti's
breast touched the sore made there by
the ring end of Gwylim's razor strop, and
138

THE WOMAN WHO SOWED INIQUITY

the place hurt her. She gave a cry ; and
with that cry there arose in her heart
something of the old spirit of the woman
who flaunted herself in fine vain gar-
ments on a Sabbath morning, and who
laughed in the faces of the men of the
Big Seat.

" Joshua," she cried, " you've stolen
Lancoch from me. Dear, dear, what an
old Satan you are, man ! Bad you are,
Joshua ! Look you, so long as there's
a roof over Lancoch, I will stop in the
house."

" You talk like an awful woman," said
Joshua. " Do you not know how you
are tempting the Big Man ? Be calm,
you wicked spider."

Joshua knelt by his bedside that night
and asked the Almighty to bring into
subjection the spirit of this most stubborn
of His creatures.

Betti locked the door of her house and
covered the windows with boards. At the
139

MY PEOPLE

weakest point, which was in the doorway,
she stood armed with a crowbar.

In the morning Joshua spoke to Hugh
the Stonemason.

" I have spent the night in prayer," he
said. " The Big Man has not forsaken
the righteous, so whatever happens will
be His doing, not ours, Hugh bach. The
Lord's will be done. Go you down to
Lancoch now, and take an old ladder with
you and climb to the roof, and remove
the tiles one by one. Be careful lest any
untoward happening befall my sister Betti,
for has not the white little Jesus bidden
us love our enemies ? Do you see, Hugh
bach, that not one slate falls on the head
of our sister Betti. But if one does,
well-well, then, has not the Great Male
promised to be on the side of His religious
children ? "

140

A JUST MAN IN SODOM

141

VIII
A JUST MAN IN SODOM

THE haymakers, gathering in the hay of
Sadrach Danyrefail, rested in the shadow
of the hedge, eating their midday por-
ridge and skimmed milk.

Sadrach the Small raised his voice :

" Come you now, Pedr, give us a little
bit of a sermon, man. Stand you in the
old cart."

" Iss, iss," said Martha, the stranger
woman who ruled at Danyrefail, " do
you do this thing we ask of you."

The workers raised their mouths from
their wooden bowls.

" Goodness now," said Pedr, " why
should I, beloved of the little Big Man,
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MY PEOPLE

preach from a common cart when there
is a pulpit in Capel Sion ? ':

" Oh, Pedr, Pedr," Sadrach the Small
said, "do we not always say that you
ought to judge us in Capel Sion ? Sure
there is something you can bear witness to
before we go on with the old hay. Turn
you your mind now, and say sayings to

us."

" Think you truly I ought to be a
preacher ? ': asked Pedr, his eyes shining
with vanity. " There's happy would I
be if they'd let me preach from a pulpit
bach."

Sadrach the Large then addressed Pedr :

" Preach you to us for ten minutes, and
I'll take a hat round for a collection.
Indeed to goodness, I will now."

" Sadrach ! Sadrach ! J: said Martha,
" what for you make such a foolish
promise ? Man, man, you are as silly as
Pedr. Come, little people, have you not
rested long enough ? 3:
144

A JUST MAN IN SODOM

But Pedr, open-mouthed, was standing
in the cart ; his large eyes looked upon
the fertile land between him and Avon
Bern, where grazed Sadrach's cows, the
best herd in the neighbourhood, and where
flourished Sadrach's corn, the most plea-
sing sight in all the land. Sadrach the
Small threw at him a handful of horse-dung,
which fell on Pedr's open lips and the
never-shaved hairs that curled on his chin.

" Pedr, indeed to goodness, there's slow
are you, man," remarked Sadrach the
Large.

44 Praying was I, Sadrach bach, for
strength to speak unto this gathering."

" Sober now," said Sadrach the Large,
" you must not go as far as that."

Pedr took a text and spoke to the
people, whereon one turned to the other,
whispering :

" Dull Pedr brays like a mule."

From where he was lying on the ground
Sadrach the Small cried :
L 145

MY PEOPLE

" Tell us, Pedr, man, about the vision
you had the last night but one. Do you
be soon."

" Woe is me ! " exclaimed Pedr. " The
Big Man forgive me for forgetting what
the little white Jesus told me."

" Come on, Pedr ; come on, Pedr,"
cried the haymakers.

Pedr gazed on those below him.

" Boys bach nice," he said, " Jesus did
speak to me about you, and He did say
things of great concern about Capel Sion.
My dears, do you let Pedr now say a small
prayer first."

Pedr closed his eyes, and while he sang
Sadrach the Small crawled forward on his
belly and dug the prongs of his pitching-
fork into him.

4 The message ! The message ! ': he
cried. " Jasto, what a jolt-headed mare
you are."

" Do you let the fool be," said
Martha. " What is the matter for
146

A JUST MAN IN SODOM

you, man ? Come down from the old
cart."

Pedr eyed the people indulgently.

" Wasn't that a fairish prayer ? ' he
asked.

" As good as Bryn-Bevan's," was the
response.

"As good as Bryn-Bevan's!" repeated
Pedr.

" Iss, iss, you old owl. Deliver the
message."

" Does not the least among you think
he is wiser than Pedr ? " he reproached
them. " But am I not rich in grace ?
To whom did the little white Jesus come
last night ? He never visited even Essec.
For why ? Because when old Essec was
dying he said wily words to his son Joshua
Llanwen : c Keep your purse full and the
strings tight, and nothing will fail you.' :

" But, Pedr," Sadrach the Large ex-
plained, " Essec meant these things to
come after religion."

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MY PEOPLE

" Did he now ? " said Pedr. " Dear me,
there's a blockhead am I. I did not
know."

" If I die, Pedr is madder than ever ! ':
said one.

" Oh, I am wise to-day. Pedr is wise
with the wisdom of God. Am I not among
the prophets ? See you, I am come after
little Elijah, and Jeremiah, and Daniel.
What a boy brave Dan bach was, for
sure. The white Jesus said to me, ' Pedr,
I look to you to save Capel Sion.' :

" If we let the dog go on blaspheming,"
Martha interrupted, " the revengeful Big
Man will punish us with rain before half
the hay is in stack."

" I am a man of God," Pedr drivelled.
14 Hearken you now to my voice, for do
not my sayings come from Him whose
mercy is as bountiful as the hay around us,
and whose anger is as furious as the bull
who frightened Achsah the wife of Sadrach
into giving birth to Sadrach the Small on
148

A JUST MAN IN SODOM

the threshold of Danyrefail. ' The children
of Capel Sion,' said the little white Jesus,
' are walking in the ways of the Bad Man.' '

" Pedr bach," said Sadrach the Large,
" have you care now. Don't you, little
male, trifle with the name of the Big Man."

Pedr closed his ears against the warning.

" The Big Man is angry with you," he
resumed, " and His anger consumes like
the fire which ate up the hay of Griffith
Graig, though His mercy is as the waters
of Morfa. ' Pedr bach,' said the little
white Jesus, ' tell you them to turn away
from their adulterous ways, for when the
Lord hurteth a man He hurteth him to
death. Tell you them that they are as
wicked as the old blacks of Sodom.' :

Sadrach the Small flung a rake at
Pedr's head.

" Now, now, that is not like the off-
spring of a religious father," Sadrach the
Large rebuked his son. " Be you calm,
my child. The temptation is great, but
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MY PEOPLE

remember you that Pedr is not sensible in
his head."

" O people," Pedr continued, " listen.
Thus said the Big Man : 4 Capel Sion
has become as a temple of pig buyers ; a
woman without glory. Pedr bach, do you
say to them that I will destroy their crops
and rot their bones, that not one male,
nor female, nor child shall rise from the
grave when my little servant Gabriel
blows on his old trumpet. They will
abide among the filthy, creeping things
of the earth.' "

Martha interposed : " Throw you the
vain crow out, Sadrach, else sure some-
thing bad will hap to me and your father
for harbouring him in our land."

Pedr continued : " Said the little white
Jesus : ' Mind you, Pedr bach, not to
forget to tell the sons of Capel Sion that
they have thieved from the widow and the
orphan ; tell you the daughters too, Pedr
bach, that they speak slander and deal
150

A JUST MAN IN SODOM

lightly with the things that are holy in my
sight.' There's sayings for you ! What
for you laugh, boys bach ? Is not the
Judge of the earth right ? Would you
laugh at Daniel ? At Elijah ? Why for
you laugh ? You will have, dear me, to
change your thinks if you will wear the
White Shirts."

So Pedr assumed the mantle of a prophet.
Children mocked him and stoned him, and
threw clods of earth at him ; men and
women reviled him, inquiring of him
always: "How now, Pedr, anything new
from the Palace ? '

He left the house where he dwelt, and
went to live on the moor. There, on the
brim of the stone quarry, he built a hut
of mud, and the roof he covered with dry
heather, and at a distance of eight feet
therefrom he threw up a mound of earth
which he called an altar and he dedicated
it unto God.

In the hut he fasted and meditated,
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MY PEOPLE

and by the altar he prayed continu-
ally.

The evening of the fifth day after
Sadrach's hay had been stacked a heavy
rain fell upon West Wales, and this rain
lasted many days, destroying much of the
crops. The men of the Big Seat proved
the congregation, and they found that
Sion was without sin, hence this deluge
of rain was not a judgment upon Sion.
They also gathered themselves together
and prayed for deliverance.

Pedr journeyed down from the moor
and waited outside the gates that admit
you into Capel Sion, and as the congrega-
tion departed, he cried :

" Little people, why value you the things
that perish more than the living soul ? 5:

Sadrach Danyrefail derided him.

" A bad prophet you are indeed," he

said. ' What for you didn't say the rain

was coming, man, so as to save all this

nasty bother ? Goodness me, you are a

152

A JUST MAN IN SODOM

frog ! There's vexed Martha is since you
waggled your wild tongue in the hayfield.
Prophet ! Who made you judge in Capel
Sion ? Think you the Big Man chooses
you before me and the Respected Bryn-
Bevan to be His mouthpiece ? ':

" Woe to you, Sadrach Danyrefail," an-
nounced Pedr. " Your dishonour makes
the little angels weep."

Sadrach spat in his face.

" Dear people " began Pedr.

"Pedr," said Sadrach, "bits of sermons
now and again are all right, but when you
take the name of the Big Man in vain,
well- well, it is very sinful."

" My soul," exclaimed Pedr, " is as clean
as the soul of Elijah."

" Hearken you now, Pedr," said Sadrach
jestingly, "can you bring the dead to
life ? Elijah could. And, dear me, where
are your sacrifices ? You can't bring an
old turnip to life, man."

The people pushed Pedr hither and
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MY PEOPLE

thither. In his terror he cried loudly to
God to protect his skin, but his words
did not save his body from a stone nor
a clod of earth.

All through that night Pedr prayed at
the side of the altar he had dedicated unto
the Big Father.

When Sadrach the Small fetched the
cows in the morning, which was the Sab-
bath, he saw that the bull-calf was missing.
He searched in all the field and in many
of those of his neighbours. Returning to
Danyrefail, he climbed up into his father's
room.

"Little father," he said, "the old bull-
calf is lost, man."

" Now careless some one has been. Was
the gate shut, Sadrach ? '

" Indeed, iss, it was."

44 The calf couldn't open the gate,
boy," said Martha.

" Wise your speech," said Sadrach the
Large. " Hie you and look again. But
154

A JUST MAN IN SODOM

mouth you to no one your mission. Re-
collect that this is the Sabbath. Still, it is
not sinning to look for a lost sheep on the
Sabbath, but let it not be said that a bad
sampler comes from Danyrefail."

That Sabbath morning Pedr hailed a
man who was crossing the moor to Capel
Sion.

" Man bach," he said to him, " do you
hurry quickly now, and tell them in Sion
to come up the mountain, because this
day the Big Creator is manifesting
Himself. For this hour, man bach,
you are a messenger of the white little
Jesus."

The man laughed the news to those
with whom he fell in. He laughed it to
Sadrach the Large.

" The old cuckoo must be sent to the
House of the Mad," said Sadrach.

Sadrach walked as far as the gates of
Capel Sion, then he turned back and went
up to the moor. As he neared the hut,
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MY PEOPLE

Pedr ran to him and threw his arm around
his neck.

" Sadrach Danyrefail," he said, " there's
joyous I am you've come. Sing a hymn
of gladness, Sadrach Danyrefail, for to-day
the Bad Man departs from Capel Sion."

Pedr led Sadrach to the altar, and on
the top of it was the bull-calf, slowly
bleeding to death.

" Son of hell ! " cried Sadrach when he saw
what Pedr had done. " For what do you
do this with my calf which is worth great
yellow gold ? I'll have the law on you in
half an hour, even if it is the Sabbath."

He hit out with his arm, and Pedr fell
against the altar, and the blood of the
calf dropped upon his face.

" Dear Sadrach," he said when he had
risen to his feet, " this is the sacrifice that
is going to wipe away the sins of Capel
Sodom. Indeed, indeed, it is now. But,
lo, the Big Man is not meanly. He is
satisfied with the blood only. Look you
156

A JUST MAN IN SODOM

now, I will bring back your old calf to
life. The white Jesus will do this for His
prophet."

Pedr removed the blood from his fore-
head, because it was oozing into his eyes,
with a little heather, and he went and
stood on the altar ; and he turned his
face on the dying calf and stretched forth
his hands.

" In the name of the little white Jesus,
return you to life, little bull-calf," he said.
" Jesus bach, do you bring this about for
the sake of your servant's good name."

157

BE THIS HER MEMORIAL

159

IX

BE THIS HER MEMORIAL

MICE and rats, as it is said, frequent neither
churches nor poor men's homes. The story
I have to tell you about Nanni — the
Nanni who was hustled on her way to
prayer-meeting by the Bad Man, who saw
the phantom mourners bearing away Twm
Tybach's coffin, who saw the Spirit Hounds
and heard their meanings two days before
Isaac Penparc took wing — the story I
have to tell you contradicts that theory.

Nanni was religious ; and she was old.
No one knew how old she was, for she said
that she remembered the birth of each
person that gathered in Capel Sion ; she
was so old that her age had ceased to
concern.

M 161

MY PEOPLE

She lived in the mud-walled, straw-
thatched cottage on the steep road which
goes up from the Garden of Eden, and
ends at the tramping way that takes you
into Cardigan town ; if you happen to be
travelling that way you may still see the
roofless walls which were silent witnesses to
Nanni's great sacrifice — a sacrifice surely
counted unto her for righteousness, though
in her search for God she fell down and
worshipped at the feet of a god.

Nanni's income was three shillings and
ninepence a week. That sum was allowed
her by Abel Shones, the officer for Poor
Relief, who each pay-day never forgot to
remind the crooked, wrinkled, toothless
old woman how much she owed to him
and God.

4 ' If it was not for me, little Nanni," Abel
was in the habit of telling her, " you would
be in the House of the Poor long ago."

At that remark Nanni would shiver and
tremble.

162

BE THIS HER MEMORIAL

" Dear heart," she would say in the
third person, for Abel was a mighty man
and the holder of a proud office, " I pray
for him night and day."

Nanni spoke the truth, for she did re-
member Abel in her prayers. But the
workhouse held for her none of the terrors
it holds for her poverty-stricken sisters.
Life was life anywhere, in cottage or in
poorhouse, though with this difference :
her liberty in the poorhouse would be so
curtailed that no more would she be able
to listen to the spirit-laden eloquence of
the Respected Josiah Bryn-Bevan. She
helped to bring Josiah into the world ;
she swaddled him in her own flannel
petticoat ; she watched him going to and
coming from school ; she knitted for him
four pairs of strong stockings to mark his
going out into the world as a farm servant ;
and when the boy, having obeyed the
command of the Big Man, was called to
minister to the congregation of Capel Sion,
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MY PEOPLE

even Josiah's mother was not more vain
than Old Nanni. Hence Nanni struggled
on less than three shillings and ninepence
a week, for did she not give a tenth of
her income to the treasury of the Capel ?
Unconsciously she came to regard Josiah
as greater than God : God was abstract ;
Josiah was real.

As Josiah played a part in Nanni's life,
so did a Seller of Bibles play a minor part
in the last few days of her travail. The
man came to Nanni's cottage the evening
of the day of the rumour that the Respected
Josiah Bryn-Bevan had received a call
from a wealthy sister church in Aberyst-
wyth. Broken with grief, Nanni, the first
time for many years, bent her stiffened
limbs and addressed herself to the living
God.

" Dear little Big Man," she prayed,
" let not your son bach religious depart."

Then she recalled how good God had
been to her, how He had permitted her
164

BE THIS HER MEMORIAL

to listen to His son's voice ; and another
fear struck her heart.

" Dear little Big Man," she muttered
between her blackened gums, " do you
now let me live to hear the boy's farewell
words."

At that moment the Seller of Bibles
raised the latch of the door.

" The Big Man be with this household,"
he said, placing his pack on Nanni's bed.

" Sit you down," said Nanni, " and rest
yourself, for you must be weary."

"Man," replied the Seller of Bibles, "is
never weary of well-doing."

Nanny dusted for him a chair.

" No, no ; indeed now," he said ; " 1
cannot tarry long, woman. Do you not
know that I am the Big Man's messenger ?
Am I not honoured to take His word into
the highways and byways, and has He
not sent me here ? '

He unstrapped his pack, and showed
Nanni a gaudy volume with a clasp
165

MY PEOPLE

of brass, and containing many coloured
prints ; the pictures he explained at
hazard : here was a tall-hatted John
baptising, here a Roman-featured Christ
praying in the Garden of Gethsemane,
here a frock-coated Moses and the Tablets.

" A Book," said he, " which ought to be
on the table of every Christian home."

" Truth you speak, little man," re-
marked Nanni. " What shall I say to
you you are asking for it ? '

" It has a price far above rubies," an-
swered the Seller of Bibles. He turned
over the leaves and read : " ' The labourer
is worthy of his hire.' Thus is it written.
I will let you have one copy — one copy
only — at cost price."

" How good you are, dear me ! ': ex-
claimed Nanni.

" This I can do," said the Seller of Bibles,
" because my Master is the Big Man."

" Speak you now what the cost price

is."

166

BE THIS HER MEMORIAL

" A little sovereign, that is all."

" Dear, dear ; the Word of the little
Big Man for a sovereign ! "

44 Keep you the Book on your parlour
table for a week. Maybe others who are
thirsty will see it."

Then the Seller of Bibles sang a prayer ;
and he departed.

Before the week was over the Respected
Josiah Bryn-Bevan announced from his
pulpit that in the call he had discerned
the voice of God bidding him go forth into
the vineyard.

Nanni went home and prayed to the
merciful God :

4' Dear little Big Man, spare me to listen
to the farewell sermon of your saint."

Nanni informed the Seller of Bibles that
she would buy the Book, and she asked
him to take it away with him and have
written inside it an inscription to the
effect that it was a gift from the least
worthy of his flock to the Respected
167

MY PEOPLE

Josiah Bryn-Bevan, D.D., and she re-
quested him to bring it back to her on the
eve of the minister's farewell sermon.

She then hammered hobnails into the
soles of her boots, so as to render them
more durable for tramping to such capels
as Bryn-Bevan happened to be preaching
in. Her absences from home became a
byword, occurring as they did in the hay-
making season. Her labour was wanted
in the fields. It was the property of
the community, the community which
paid her three shillings and ninepence a
week.

One night Sadrach Danyrefail called at
her cottage to commandeer her services for
the next day. His crop had been on the
ground for a fortnight, and now that there
was a prospect of fair weather he was
anxious to gather it in. Sadrach was
going to say hard things to Nanni, but the
appearance of the gleaming-eyed creature
that drew back the bolts of the door fright-
168

BE THIS HER MEMORIAL

ened him and tied his tongue. He was
glad that the old woman did not invite
him inside, for from within there issued an
abominable smell such as might have come
from the boiler of the witch who one time
lived on the moor. In the morning he saw
Nanni trudging towards a distant capel
where the Respected Josiah Bryn-Bevan
was delivering a sermon in the evening.
She looked less bent and not so shrivelled
up as she did the night before. Clearly,
sleep had given her fresh vitality.

Two Sabbaths before the farewell ser-
mon was to be preached Nanni came to
Capel Sion with an ugly sore at the side
of her mouth ; repulsive matter oozed
slowly from it, forming into a head, and
then coursing thickly down her chin on to
the shoulder of her black cape, where it
glistened among the beads. On occasions
her lips tightened, and she swished a hand
angrily across her face.

" Old Nanni," folk remarked while dis-
169

MY PEOPLE

cussing her over their dinner-tables, " is
getting as dirty as an old sow."

During the week two more sores ap-
peared ; the next Sabbath Nanni had a
strip of calico drawn over her face.

Early on the eve of the farewell Sabbath
the Seller of Bibles arrived with the
Book, and Nanni gave him a sovereign
in small money. She packed it up
reverently, and betook herself to Sadrach
Danyrefail to ask him to make the pre-
sentation.

At the end of his sermon the Respected
Josiah Bryn-Bevan made reference to the
giver of the Bible, and grieved that she was
not in the Capel. He dwelt on her sacri-
fice. Here was a Book to be treasured,
and he could think of no one who would
treasure it better than Sadrach Danyrefail,
to whom he would hand it in recogni-
tion of his work in the School of the
Sabbath.

In the morning the Respected Josiah
170

BE THIS HER MEMORIAL

Bryn-Bevan, making a tour of his congre-
gation, bethought himself of Nanni. The
thought came to him on leaving Danyre-
fail, the distance betwixt which andNanni's
cottage is two fields. He opened the door
and called out :

" Nanni."

None answered.

He entered the room. Nanni was on
the floor.

" Nanni, Nanni ! " he said. " Why for
you do not reply to me ? Am I not your
shepherd ? "

There was no movement from Nanni.
Mishtir Bryn-Bevan went on his knees and
peered at her. Her hands were clasped
tightly together, as though guarding some
great treasure. The minister raised him-
self and prised them apart with the ferrule
of his walking-stick. A roasted rat re-
vealed itself. Mishtir Bryn-Bevan stood
for several moments spellbound and silent ;
and in the stillness the rats crept boldly
171

MY PEOPLE

out of their hiding places and resumed their
attack on Nanni's face. The minister,
startled and horrified, fled from the house
of sacrifice.

172

THE REDEEMER

173

X

THE REDEEMER

ADAM the son of Bern-Davydd — Bern-
Davydd being the Ruler of Capel Sion
before the day of Bryn-Bevan — was walk-
ing along the Road of the Romans, the
narrow way that begins at the forehead of
the School and disappears in the heather
of the moor. His companion was Lissi,
the servant of Ellen the Weaver's Widow.
Midway there is a breach in the hedge,
wherein, on a big stone, Adam and Lissi
rested, and while they rested Joshua
Llanwen came upon them. Joshua said :
" Say you are Adam the son of Bern-
Davydd, boy, and the wench Lissi ? "
" Iss, iss, little Adam am I."
"Now what for you mean to be here
in the dark ? " said Joshua.
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MY PEOPLE

Adam arose to his feet and answered :

" Goodness me, Josh bach, are we not
going home ? "

" What a big iob you are, you bull-
calf ! '" Joshua shouted. " Why for you
are an old cow, man ? The other road
is to the Shepherd's Abode. Have I not
pledged that this is not to happen ? '

He clenched his hand and thrust out the
joint of his second finger, and therewith
dealt Adam three blows on the face. Adam
fell into the hedge, and while he nursed
his sores he moaned :

" Dear Josh bach, why then you are so
hasty, man ? Sure now you have cut my
nice face ! v

Joshua, ignoring the plaint, turned
upon Lissi :

" Back you hie, you brazen slut ! Turn
your wicked eyes and foul heart to Ellen's
loom-shed. You sow, walk you off in
front of me."

Lissi obeyed ; as she moved towards
176

THE REDEEMER

the School Joshua raised his foot and
kicked her.

Presently Adam scrambled over the
hedge and across pasture-land and gorse
hurried to his father's house. This he did
because he was feared of meeting Joshua
on the road.

Bern-Davydd heard the sound of the
gate opening, whereupon he lifted his eyes
to his son Lamech and to Lamech's wife
Puah, and said :

" Don't you muchly catechise Adam. Is
not Joshua an eager counsellor ? Perhaps
his sayings have brought reason into the
boy's heart. Make pretence you are read-
ing your old books."

Thus, when Adam came into the room,
no face was raised to him, nor voice said
to him : " Dear me now, who has come
for fresh garments this day ? Much silver
the tailor is gathering," or " Well- well,
little Adam, now that you've come, our
religious father will thank the Big Father
N 177

MY PEOPLE

for the mercies of the hour, and we'll go
to bed," this latter being the fashion the
household of Bern-Davydd had of spend-
ing the last wakeful moments of the eve
of the Sabbath. The transparent china
lamp on the tinsel-draped mantelpiece
lit up the group on the hearth : Bern-
Davydd, a loosely-woven rope of whitish
hair like a coil of sheep's wool which has
been caught in a barbed wire, and ex-
posed many days to the weather, extend-
ing from ear to ear ; Lamech, the ball of
his small nose glittering against swarthy
skin and bushy black beard and mous-
tache : Puah, her feet resting on the
fender, and the tuft of red hair on the
right side of her mouth shivering like
boar's hairs between the fingers of an
ancient cobbler as she turned over the
leaves of the book she was not reading.

Adam unravelled his leather boot-laces,
speaking the meanwhile :

" Dear folk, a sober thing has hap-
178

THE REDEEMER

pened to me this night. Seven times did
Joshua Llanwen beat my face. Puah,
look you at me now. Touch my hand
and speak to them how it trembles."

Puah showed kindness to him and did
as he had asked her.

" Iss, indeed," she said, " there's blood
on your cheeks, Adam bach."

" What foolish man Josh is ! Has he
not opened the gash I did with the razor ? "

Lamech chided from his chair :

44 Brother Adam, heard you never of
the speech of the Man of Terror, saying,
* Vengeance is mine ' ? ':

" Little Lamech, did not Joshua strike
me seven times on my nice chin ? "

" Adam, the son of Bern-Davydd, listen
you to me, man. Is it not written, * Hard
is the way of the transgressor ' ? ':

The Respected Bern-Davydd said :

" Let me speak to the Big Man."

A period of twelve years divided these
two sons of Bern-Davydd, the years of
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MY PEOPLE

Lamech, the elder, being fifty-two. At the
age of forty-eight Lamech wedded Puah
the widow of John Shop Morfa, at whose
death she inherited the shop, many book
debts, and much gold ; and now, the
harvest of debts having been gathered in
and the shop sold, Lamech received a call
to preach the Word, and was spending a
little time in the Shepherd's Abode before
entering College Carmarthen.

But Adam the younger son was imbued
with little understanding ; he had never
risen above working in Shop Pugh Tailor.
Six months before this night he had desired
Lissi, the squint-eyed girl that Ellen the
Weaver's widow got from Castellybryn
Poorhouse. He had sent her a letter,
which Samson Post spoke in the public
places. Thereafter Lissi waited for Adam
every night outside Shop Pugh Tailor.

His doings came to the ears of Lamech
and Puah, who shook their heads dismally,
the wife saying to her husband :
180

THE REDEEMER

" Vile is Adam to covet the flesh of a
poorhouse brat."

" Doleful is my heart and anxious,"
said Lamech.

" Go you and tell our father about this
madness," observed Puah.

Lamech opened his Bible for spiritual
guidance ; he read aloud these words :
" Ye shall bring down my gray hairs with
sorrow to the grave."

" Throw you your light of wisdom on
the speech, Lamech," said Puah.

" The Big Man means that it's better
for others to tell our father. Adam may
plead that what we say is not true, and
we will be rebuked. Let some cunning
one go and bear witness."

Puah tied her wide bonnet strings under
her chin, and drew on her feet her elastic-
side boots, and went to Llanwen and told
Joshua to go and inform her father-in-
law of the wickedness of Adam.

" For why he is so blind, Respected
181

MY PEOPLE

Bern -Davy dd ? " said Joshua. " And he
our ruler too ! If he cannot perceive the
enemy in his own household, how expect he
to find him among the congregation ? One
of his own lambs goes astray."

" Joshua Llanwen, speak you plain to

me now.':

" Is not that ram of an Adam courting
Lissi, the poorhouse bitch that works at
Ellen's loom ? The pig that cackles his
son to the Pool ! The bellows that blows
him into the arms of Satan ! Why do
Adam and her go each night on the Road
of the Romans ? Bern-Davydd, this is no
light matter to him."

" Woe is me ! ' cried Bern-Davydd.
" A sinner from my loins ! . . . This must
end. Joshua Llanwen, be you another
Paul. Keep watch over my son on the
Road of the Romans. Stay in hiding, and
if you see anything wrong, show yourself,
and counsel him, and drive the evil spirit
out of him."

182

THE REDEEMER

So Adam came home with blood on
his chin, hence Bern-Davydd knew that
Joshua Llanwen had performed his ser-
vices faithfully ; and on many occasions
Joshua chastised Adam with his tongue,
and his fists, and with the oaken club he
employed to break in horses. Yet Adam
would not leave off courting Lissi.

One night Bern-Davydd and his son
Lamech spoke to Adam of their grief.
Bern-Davydd said : " Uncomfortable you
make us. There's little you show yourself
in the sight of Capel Sion."

" Mouth you to us now," said Lamech,
" that you will let the bad wench be."

" Iss, say you like that," said Puah.
" Think you the Big Man has chosen such
as Lissi to be a Bern-Davydd ? '

" Little people," answered Adam,
" shortsighted you be then. Expect you,
Lamech, the Big Father to perform a
miracle with Puah as He did with Sara ?
Will she conceive and bear for you a
183

MY PEOPLE

child ? Puah has passed her fruitfulness,
and am I not the hope of the Bern-
Davydds ? "

" But, dull Adam bach," said Puah,
" why do you go low for a female ? Mercy
me ! Lissi a Bern-Davydd ! Repent you
now, and be a goldy boy."

Bern-Davydd's heart hardened against
his stubborn son, and the colour of his face
became that of the sun-dried walls of the
quarry on the moor ; and he informed God
of a just punishment for those who rebel.

Soon people began to whisper that
before long Adam would be a father ; the
whisper rose into a shout, and it was
cried on the tramping way, and even at
the gates of Capel Sion. Bern-Davydd
and Lamech heard it, and they trembled.
The father proclaimed from the pulpit :

" I have searched my soul for some sin

that, unbeknown to myself, I might have

committed. Did I find any ? No, indeed

to goodness, now, I didn't. Yet the Big

184

THE REDEEMER

Man's hand is hard on the innocent. My
clean heart is bowed with shame. Why does
the Big Father punish His child so ? Last
night I said to Him : ' Lead me, big Je-
hovah bach.' Perhaps, dear me, Adam
has inherited the vanity of his mother
Silah. Pray for her, you boys bach re-
ligious of the Lord."

Three mournful days passed, then Bern-
Davydd said to Lamech :

" Go down and examine the dirty clod.
Look you for signs if she is indeed with
child. The wench may be crafty in the
manner of her clothes. And, little saintly
son, get you her to admit that others have
been with her."

Puah interrupted : "I will go with
Lamech, for I am a woman, and do I not
understand the signs ? '

Lissi was at her loom when Lamech and
Puah came into the shed.

" Hai, the dirty wench ! Walk here
and stand forth, you hussy," cried Lamech.
185

MY PEOPLE

Lissi rose from her loom and came to
Lamech and his wife, and as she got near
they observed that the front of the girl's
petticoat hung high and away from her
clogs and grey stockings.

"Ach y fi! Take," said Puah, "the
stuffing away from your belly."

"Indeed me," answered Lissi, "not
stuffing is here for surely. Full is my
skin."

" O you Jezebel ! " Puah cried. " Tell
me, you ugly creature, how with your
squint you tempted Adam bach."

" Speak of the others who have been
bad with you," said Lamech.

Lissi, her mouth expressing an unin-
telligible grin, her large fingers twisting
and untwisting a length of yarn, stood
before them mute as a sheep in the hands
of the shearer.

" Indeed to goodness now," Puah went
on, " imagine you that Adam will marry
you ? "

186

THE REDEEMER

The girl whined : " He'll have to. Ellen
says I can petty sessions him if he refuses."

" For sure now, Lissi, Adam is not the
father of the child," Puah said.

" What for you talk," Lissi replied,
her spirit rising, " for was he not bad
with me the night Josiah Llanwen's bull-
calf perished ? '

" Iss, Lissi fach," said Puah, " Josh
Llanwen did this and that to your flesh."

" No, indeed, he didn't."

" Lissi, Lissi, that night on the Road of
the Romans, now. . . . Iss, iss, of course
he was. Did he not put you on the old
stone ? "

" No, no."

" Josh has repented," Puah said. " Does
he not say, ' I am the father of Lissi's
child ' ? "

" Sure me, Joshua is the father," said

Lamech. " His poor old flesh couldn't

withstand the temptation. But Capel

Sion won't be hard on you, Lissi, nor on

187

MY PEOPLE

Josh. Isn't he the father, little daughter
fach ? "

" For sure, no," answered Lissi. " Josh
Llanwen is important in Sion. Is
not Priscila his wife ? The father of the
child is Adam. Did not Ellen peep into
the shed ? "

44 Be you religious, Lissi," Puah urged.
" Do you admit to Josh. If you die in
childbirth there's glad you'll be that you
won't cross the Jordan with a lie in your
head."

44 Great will be your reward," Lamech
added. 44 You can say to the Large Spirit,
4 1 am the truth.' "

44 But Joshua has not been bad with
me," Lissi persisted.

After the result of this conversation had
been reported to Bern-Davydd, Puah
spoke to her father-in-law. Her words
pleased him, and he marvelled at her
skill and prudence.

Dusk having fallen, Puah went over
188

THE REDEEMER

pasture and gorse to the Road of the
Romans. In the breach in the hedge she
hid behind the stone, and she remained
there until Adam and Lissi came by ; and
when she heard the girl coming back alone
she placed over herself a bed sheet, and
thus covered she stood in the middle of
the way. Lissi saw her thus arrayed, and
she was very frightened. She threw off
her clogs and ran. Before she reached
the forehead of the School she was over-
taken by unfamiliar pains. . . . The child
she delivered — a man child — was dead,
and from her travail Lissi passed into
madness.

189

AS IT IS WRITTEN

191

XI

AS IT IS WRITTEN

SAMSON POST placed his arms on the gate
of the close of Penyrallt, and cried loudly :

" Mali ! Mali ! Be you quick and come,
woman. Have I not a letter from your
son Dan ? Mali fach, do you haste now.
Woe me, there's provoking you are to
keep the post waiting ! "

From the inside of the pigsty Mali
answered :

44 What old hurry you are in, man !
Do you wait one little minute and I'll be
with you."

Mali stooped her legs because she was
too fat to bend the middle of her body,
and came forth out of the pigsty, and
o 193

MY PEOPLE

while she scraped off the refuse from off
the sides of her clogs, she called out :

" A writing from Dan, Samson bach ? '

" Iss, iss," answered Samson, " take you
the old letter."

" Goodness now, whatever does the
boy say then ? Little Samson, don't you
stand there like doited idiot. Speak Dan
bach's words."

" Dan says he is coming home for a
small holiday," said Samson, opening
the envelope. " And he is bringing a maid
with him."

" What for you say jokes, man ! Be
serious and truthful."

" Mali the daughter of Mati and the
wife of Shaci, truthful I am, indeed, dear

me."

" Peer at the letter now, Samson bach,
and interpret it to me without deceit,"
said Mali.

" Woman alive, not joking am I.
Do I not speech that Dan and his
194

AS IT IS WRITTEN

maid will be home on the third day
then ? "

" Dan bach and his maid ! Serious
now ? Who may she be ? Samson, Sam-
son, there's shut up you are. Tell her
name, man ? "

" Curious was Mati your old mother,
and curious you are, Mali. But wait a
bit now while I have another peep at the
old letter. . . . Dear, where is she ? Here
she is. Alice Wite — that's her name,
Mali. Miss Wite."

" That's vile English," said Mali.

" English, little Mali."

" Doesn't the boy say how much yellow
gold she possesses ? ':

" No-no, woman."

" Then she hasn't got any. Wite, in-
deed ! There's a bad concubine ! For
what then Dan doesn't throw gravel at
the window of some tidy wench who can
speak his native tongue ! ':

Mali threw her voice across the close
195

MY PEOPLE

and into the corner of the field which is
behind the barn where Shaci her husband
was thatching his hay.

" Shaci, man ! Are you deaf then, for
sure ! Why you do not listen ? Come you
here at once."

Shaci came down to the earth and walked
to the gate slowly, for though he was not
old, he stooped because of much earth toil.

When he was within twenty paces of her,
Mali called to him :

" Samson the Post does say that Dan
bach is coming home on the third day with
an old bitch of an English maid. A cow
as poor as a church mouse, I wager."

" Iss, iss, Shaci bach," said Samson
the Post, " what talk there is in Shop
Rhys about Dan ! The religious Respected
Bryn-Bevan was there, and did he not
say that the abodes of the old English are
refreshment places on the way to the
Pool ? Grand indeed he spoke. Like a
sermon."

196

AS IT IS WRITTEN

" Whatever is the matter with the
boy ? " said Shaci. " Little Samson, read
you writing of the letter now to me."

" Shaci ! Shaci ! " Samson admonished
him. " Inconsiderate you are, man.
Know you not that I am the post ? Has
there not been a letter in my bag for three
days for the owl of a Schoolin' telling him
the day of Sara's funeral ? r

Mali was sorrowful that her son Dan
was to be charged with this fault, and she
said to her husband :

" Shaci bach, here's disgrace. Put your
old head into the words that Dan has
written."

But Samson the Post had taken away
the letter.

" Full of wrath am I," said Shaci.

" Heard you what the old Satan said
about the Respected Bryn-Bevan ? '

" Iss, iss."

" This thing must not come to pass.
How shall we hold up our heads in
197

MY PEOPLE

Capel Sion if Dan weds an old foreign
leech ? "

Shaci went out, and while he was labour-
ing he thought out a device and he came
into the house to take counsel of his wife.
This is what he said to Mali :

" Hearken to my speech, now, Mali
fach. I will, dear me, go to Mistress
Morgan Post and ask her to send a little
telegram to Dan saying, 4 Remember Capel
Sion, Dan bach.'

" Why speak so wasteful ? ': Mali re-
plied. " Six red pennies old telegrams
cost, and is not Mistress Morgan meanly ?
She won't take a small penny off the
price."

" True-true. Iss, indeed."

Night came on, and Shaci read the
words with which Moses praised the Big
Man for the deliverance of the children of
Israel from the hands of the Egyptians.

But Mali did not hear anything of that
which Shaci said under the open chimney
198

AS IT IS WRITTEN

or that which he read by the light of the
tallow candle. She felt shame for Dan, her
son, whose name would be denounced from
the pulpit and spoken with scorn by the
congregation, and she remembered his
deeds, first and last. Dear people, why was
it destined for Dan to trespass in the eyes
of Sion ? Heart alive, are not the evil ways
of the English known far and wide ? And
their helpless wastefulness ? Look you at
Owen, the son of Antony. Owen was in a
grand shop draper in Swansea. He took to
himself as wife a daughter of the English,
and she kept a house for lodgers. Good-
ness me, is it not engraved on Owen's
tombstone in the Old Burial Ground in
Capel Sion that he left only one hundred
yellow sovereigns ? Does not Antony
lament to this day that Owen bach would
have left half a hundred more yellow
sovereigns if he had wedded a Welsh
maid ? Little Big Man, for why has not
a Welsh maid, with a bit of land in her
199

MY PEOPLE

own name, found favour with Dan bach ?
There's sad it is.

Shaci closed his Bible.

" Pray will I now, Mali fach," he said,
" for Dan."

" What for you pray, Shaci," answered
Mali, " and do nothing ? Say now we
got Sadrach Danyrefail to come and speak
to the boy."

" Good that would be."

" And Joshua Llanwen."

" He too is a man of God."

Shaci went to Llanwen and spoke to
Joshua by the ditch under the house.

44 Mali is wanting you to speak wise
words to Dan," he said.

" Dan's sins have reached my ears,"
said Joshua. " By and by I will say
phrases to the dear Big Man, and the
words of the Terrible One will scorch your
son Dan."

Shaci then went across the fields (for
this horrid thing made him fearsome of
200

AS IT IS WRITTEN

showing his face to his neighbours, lest
they should reproach him) to Danyrefail.

" Shaci ! Shaci ! Go you and wash your
dirty old heart," cried Martha to him.
" Unworthy you are."

" Now-now, humble is my carcase,"
replied Shaci.

" But are you humble before the Al-
mighty ? ': cried Martha the stranger
woman of Danyrefail. " Drato, go on
your dirty knees, old boy ugly."

" There's no more spirit left in me,
little Martha," said Shaci. " Do you now
in the godliness of your heart say to
Sadrach the Large that I seek his in-
struction."

Sadrach took Shaci aside to speak to
him quietly.

" Sure, little Shaci," he ended, " come
I will to prove this foreign hussy with
hard questions."

So Shaci's heart was lightened, and he
walked home over the tramping road ;
201

MY PEOPLE

and though many asked him this and
thus, he saw none mocking him to his
face.

When he got home Mali was moaning
her grief to Bertha Daviss, and Rhys
Shop, and Sali the wife of Old Shemmi.

" For why does poor Dan bach want to
bring home a bad woman from the Eng-
lish ? " she said. " Alice Wite. There's
a nasty wench ! The cunning serpent to
lure away my boy bach. And I dare
wager she is as poor as Old Nanni's
rats."

Rhys Shop opened his lips and made
utterance :

" Vain are the English women who work
in these shops. Did not Tom Hughes,
the traveller, say they are all wasteful ? '

" And, little Rhys," Bertha Daviss said,
" did he not say they are barren ? Sober !
Sober ! "

" Recollect you the female maid who
stayed with Wynne the vicar ? " said Sali
202

AS IT IS WRITTEN

the wife of Old Shemmi. " Goodness,
what an old girl she was, for sure ! She
washed her flesh on the Sabbath in Avon
Bern."

" Say not like that," Rhys Shop inter-
rupted.

" Iss, she did. Did not word of her
doings reach Shemmi's ears, and did he
not hide himself behind Sadrach's hedge
to see the shameless woman for himself ?
And she used to take her old pagan dog
for walks over the fields on the afternoons
of the Sabbath."

" Dear people," said Rhys Shop, " have
we not much to be thankful for to the Big
Man ? "

" Indeed, iss," said Bertha Daviss.

" The white little Jesus will do me badly
if I give the bitch a bed in my house,"
said Mali.

" Tell you me now what you are going
to do with her ? " asked Sali the wife of
Old Shemmi.

203

MY PEOPLE

" Sadrach the Large and Joshua Llan-
wen will prove her," answered Shaci.

" Proper indeed to ask the Respected
Bryn-Bevan to speak to her also," said
Bertha. *' Go you off, the two of you
together, and speak to him."

Mali followed closely behind Shaci, and
she was weeping the whole of the way,
and her grief was so much that she spoke
to none of the people who asked of her :
" Mali fach, what for you weep, woman
nice?"

" Come into the cowshed, sinners bach,"
said the Respected Bryn-Bevan ; " the
mistress has been washing the flags. Ho,
iss, the hand of the Lord is hard upon
you this day."

14 Iss, Respected bach," said Shaci.

" This thing, Shaci, does not please me.
Samson Post came to me for guidance, and
we agreed that Wite is not a Welsh word.
Ho, Shaci, no one in the Book of Words
is named Wite."

204

AS IT IS WRITTEN

" Mishtir Bryn-Bevan ! );

" Not one, indeed."

" Awful," said Shaci.

" Sinful," said the minister.

" Do him come in the neighbourhood
of five in the afternoon and say a speech,"
said Mali. " Thankful will we be if he do
this great deed."

" Sure me, I'll come, Shaci. Has not
the Big Man called me to judge over
Sion ? I'll talk fair to the wench, and if
she bears herself without modesty in my
presence then I will deal mightily with
her."

Now in the order of their importance
these are they that went up to Penyrallt
the day that Dan brought home a daughter
of the English : the Respected Bryn-
Bevan, Sadrach the Large, Joshua Llan-
wen, Rhys Shop, Sali the wife of Old
Shemmi, Bertha Daviss.

The Respected Bryn-Bevan sat at the
round table in the parlour, and the door of
205

MY PEOPLE

the parlour was kept open so that his voice
reached the others who sat in the kitchen.

Mishtir Bryn-Bevan's reading of the
seventh chapter of Proverbs ended when
Shaci brought his horse and cart into the
close.

Rhys Shop rose to his feet and moved
towards the outer door.

Mishtir Bryn-Bevan spoke wrathfully.

" Rhys Shop," he cried, " an old black
you are to forget that I am here ! '

The minister strode through the kitchen:
the people remarked the dignity of his
stride and marvelled.

Shaci approached him, shaking his head,
and saying,

' The old wench does not speak Welsh."

Mishtir Bryn-Bevan stood on the thresh-
old, his feet far from each other ; and he
stretched forth his right arm, and his hand
was covered in black kid, and he cried :

" Halt, you female woman. Why you
come here to spoil this godly house ? Dan
206

AS IT IS WRITTEN

who is in a shop draper in Llanelly and
who is the son of Mali and Shaci, why must
you tempt the Big Man to anger, boy ?
Mournful is your dirt. Pack you the
woman about her business ; let her walk
in shame back to her own people."

The woman's lips quivered, and she was
neither young nor pretty.

Mali came down to her.

" Our little daughter," she said, " dost
her come here to take our son bach away
from us now ? Let her him be. Shaci will
take her back to Castellybryn in the old
cart."

The woman whom Dan had brought
home could not answer a word, because
she did not know the meaning of the words
Mali had spoken. Dan was about to open
his lips, when Sadrach addressed the
minister.

" Mishtir Bryn-Bevan," he said, " you
are a great scholar. Do you inquire of
the fool if she can milk a cow."
207

MY PEOPLE

" Iss," said Joshua Llanwen, " and if
she can clean a stable."

" And tell the rat of a bitch," shouted
Mali, " that Dan won't get a red penny
piece after us."

" But, mam fach," Dan broke in, " what
does that matter ? Is not Alice the owner
of a nice shop draper ? "

Mali now went to Dan, and she called
him her own boy bach, and the son of his
mother ; and she took Dan and his maid
into the parlour, and closed the door on
them.

Returning to the congregation, she
delivered to them this speech :

4 There's good you were to come. Dan's
maid, dear me, has travelled a long dis-
tance this day. Weary she is. Gracious
now, isn't she tidy ? English she may be,
but has not the Big Man told us to love our
enemies ? Shop Draper ! There's wealth
for you. Rhys, come you up on a night
and speak to her."

208

AS IT IS WRITTEN

To her husband Shaci she said :
" Go you off away down to the Shop and
get white flour. I will make a little lot of
pancakes for Dan's maid. Be you fleet
of foot."

209

;

XII
A BUNDLE OF LIFE

WORD reached Jos Gernos — Gernos is on
the brink of the ascent into the sea of
Morfa — that the inheritance of Leisa the
only child of Nansi and Silas Penlon was
to be nearly one hundred acres of land and
all the gold that had been gathered by
Silas. After deliberating on this for a
day, Jos said to his mother that he was
going forth to compromise Leisa ; he
strapped whipcord leggings over his legs,
and saddled his pony, and rode out to
Penlon ; but Leisa did not respond to
the small stones he threw at her window.
Jos went back to Gernos, and in the morn-
ing he wrote a letter to Leisa, and he
sent it by the hand of Samson Post, and
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MY PEOPLE

he waited for an answer until after the
Sabbath, but none came. Jos refused
to give over his design on Leisa's inherit-
ance, because he had much need of money :
on the fourth night Leisa took out the
paper that filled a broken pane in the
window and cried to him :

" Say from where you are ? ':

" Boy bach from Gernos am I," said Jos.

" Indeed, boy bach, all right ; is not the
old ladder in the cowhouse ? '

Three weeks expired and on a day Jos
rode away from Penlon before sunrise,
and returned when Nansi was putting the
milk into the separator.

" Little Jos," she said, " for why he is
so early ? '

"Woman, woman," replied Jos, "now-
now, do I not bring with me a ring for
wedding ? Look you, indeed."

Nansi's face was bound with bands of
flannel, which day and night wear had
made hard, and which stood on her cheeks
214

A BUNDLE OF LIFE

in the manner of a horse's bonnet. Her
upper lip was broken into a gap that let
out a little blood while she spoke, and this
blood she licked away with her tongue.

" What did he give for the old ring ? ':
she asked. " A crown, shall I say ? "

Jos showed his narrow teeth. " A
yellow sovereign all but a crown," he
answered. " If I die, go she and speak
to Peter Shop Watches in Castellybryn."

" Little Jos Gernos," said Nansi,
" there's wasteful he is. Why he now go
to Betti the widow of Shim, and say to
her : ' Betti fach, lend you me your old
ring for to wed Leisa the daughter of Silas
Penlon. In want you are, Betti, and I
will reward you with buttermilk.' :

Jos shifted a foot, and placed it near the
milk that had escaped and had formed
into a small pool in a hollow in the earthen
floor.

" Jos, Jos, what a frog he is ! " Nansi
admonished him. " Don't he move his
215

MY PEOPLE

foot now till I have scooped the precious

milk up into a clean pan."

Having done this, Nansi called : " Silas

now, Jos Gernos is here with his old ring."
Silas, straightway from his bed and clad

in flannel drawers and soleless stockings,

entered the zinc-roofed dairy.

" Did he go to the fair ? " he asked

Jos.

" Iss, iss, little man."

" How was the prices now ? "

" Sober, little man. Sober bad."

" Did he sell his colt ? Dewi says he

had one to sell."

" What Dewi says is the truth."

" What did the old colt bring ? "

" Little man, I didn't sell."

Jos placed a wooden bowl into the milk

and drank therefrom.

" Well, Silas Penlon," he observed,
" here is the costly ring. Has he matter
to say why Leisa should not share my

216

A BUNDLE OF LIFE

" Not that I know of, Jos Gernos. But
do he marry from Gernos, for Nansi here
has not time to see to these things."

After they had spoken about this which
was going to happen, and Jos had gone
his way, Nansi said these words in praise
of Jos.

" Old Jos is very tidy."

Silas clothed himself and went to the
house of Bertha Daviss, and Bertha cut
three carrots into small pieces and fried
them for him, and also brewed tea for him.
Silas seldom ate at home; had not Nansi and
Leisa and his manservant Dewi enough to
do with the care of ten cows and ten pigs
and three horses without wasting time in
the preparation of food ? Thus he jour-
neyed from cottage to cottage, at each
cottage eating fried carrots and drinking
tea. That was the period when his riches
made him a power in the land, and when
housewives pandered to him because of
his riches.

217

MY PEOPLE

44 Old Jos Gernos is talking about taking
Leisa to his bed," said Silas.

" What you call, man bach ? But
large has been the courting in Penlon,"
said Bertha.

Silas took out of the frying-pan as much
of the carrots as would fill his mouth.

44 Glad I'll be to see her going," he said.
44 She's lately taken to attending the
foolish singing class in Capel Sion. And
she changes her garments to go there."

44 And you say that, little Silas ! Have
you killed your hay yet ? '

44 Dewi and Nansi are killing to-day."

Silas ate and drank, and departed.

Noontide he was sitting on the gate of
the field in which Nansi and Dewi were
mowing his hay. There came to him a
stalwart man named Abram Bowen, who
then was the chief singing man in Capel
Sion.

44 Dear now, very good crop of hay
you've got, man," said Abram Bowen.
218

A BUNDLE OF LIFE

" Silas bach, is this not a credit to
you ? "

Nansi and Dewi were approaching the
gate, making great curves with their
scythes. Nansi paused and looked at
the men.

" Nansi, you silly cow," cried Silas,
" what for you wait ? Dewi will cut off
your little legs if you don't go faster. Do
you hurry now, for the night cometh."

" Happy I am to hear you saying from
the Book of Words," said Abram Bowen.
" Dear, dear, am I not always holding you
up as a religious example in the School
of Sabbath ? . . . There's old talk that
Leisa is going to Gernos ? '

" So they say, Abram. So they say."

" Pity now she's leaving the singing-
class. She mustn't go before the party
bach tries at Eisteddfod Morfa."

" Well- well, mouth you to the wench
herself about that."

. . • • •

219

MY PEOPLE

That night Leisa heard the sound of
gravel falling on the pane of her window.
Through the hole in the pane she called out:

" You blockhead of a tadpole, is not
the old ladder by the pigsty ? '

Abram Bowen fetched the ladder and
climbed into Leisa's room.

" Bad jasto ! ' Leisa exclaimed, when
she knew who her visitor was. " For
why you was not Jos Gernos ! Abram
Bowen, you frightened me, man, you did."

A tallow candle burnt on the chair,
and Leisa was on one side of the bed and
Abram was on the other side.

" Put on petticoats now," said Abram.
" Not religious that I eye any of your
naked flesh bach. But don't do that,
Leisa; I'll blow on the old candle. How
speak you then about Eisteddfod Morfa ? "

At the end of the tenth day, when Nansi
was pitching the last load of hay on to the
stack, Jos Gernos came to the close of
220

A BUNDLE OF LIFE

Penlon and he took his pony into a field
and said to him : " Go you now, beast
bach, and eat a little grass." Having
done that he came into the barnyard and
censured Nansi severely :

44 Evil Nansi, for what she has not
heard about her daughter Leisa ? v

" Sober, sober, what's this Jos bach
Gernos would say to me now ? "

44 Leisa won't wed me ! And did not the
old ring cost me a whole yellow sovereign ?
As I live ! Go you and ask Peter Shop
Watches."

Nansi, not ceasing in her labour, cried :

44 Silas, do you come and converse with
Jos bach Gernos."

Silas was counting up the irregular lines,
each line representing a load of hay, which
he had scratched on the door of the stable.

44 Well, Jos Gernos ? " asked Silas.

14 Leisa says she won't come to Gernos."

44 Man, man ! "

i4 Iss, the female is wedding Abram
221

MY PEOPLE

Bowen. Try he to make her sense better,
little Silas."

Thrice Silas spat on the ground, for his
mind was grief-stricken.

" Nansi," he said, " Leisa is going
against her father."

" So Jos Gernos does say."

" You have been a bad mother to the
wench," Silas shouted. " What for you
have not looked after her, you old ram ? "

Nansi came out of the cart, now that it
was empty, and raked together the small
hay that lay scattered on the ground,
and while she was doing this she said :

" Silas bach, speak you not harshly to
me now. Am I not always out in the
fields tending the animals and seeing to
the crops ? Your little place needs a lot of
watching."

Silas took his stick, and went out into
the high roads groaning.

He came upon Abram Bowen sitting on
a log of wood outside his mother's house ;
222

A BUNDLE OF LIFE

marking up the hymn-tunes for the
Sabbath's services, and humming them
over.

" Abram," said Silas, " what's this do
I hear about you ? r

" Speak on, little Silas."

" Sure now, you don't speech that
Leisa is to wed you ? ':

" Dear me, iss."

" Don't you be hard of heart, Abram
bach," said Silas. " Say you that people
are voicing lying stories."

" Shameful you talk, Silas Penlon,"
Abram said. " Angry is the Big Man
against you."

" Has she not laid with Jos Gernos ?
Has not the boy bought a ring for wed-
ding ? "

Abram Bowen sang :

" O Silas Penlon, why you are not

religious ? Is it for you to throw

stones ? Old male you are, Silas, indeed

to goodness, and the time is shortly

223

MY PEOPLE

coming for you to be screwed down in
your coffin."

" Abram Bowen," Silas urged, " do
you listen to reason now, there's a nice,
godly little boy bach."

" Silas Penlon," answered Abram, " I
say unto you, sinner, that you will go down
on your knees and thank the Big Man
that I came to Penlon. Dear me, there's
dirty the place is, man. I will plough
your land and sow seeds, and the land
will be yellow with corn."

" In the name of the Big Man," cried
Silas, " you shall not come to Penlon,"
and he was going to hit Abram with his
stick.

Abram stayed Silas's arm, saying:
" Where is that stick with you ? v When
he had taken the stick away from him, he
said : " Wicked you are, man. Pray to
the Big Man for a little grace."

Silas moaned, for he knew that Abram
Bowen was a man of nothing, and his tears
224

A BUNDLE OF LIFE

mixed with the tobacco spittle that
dribbled from each corner of his mouth
and formed curves around his chin,
and stained the tannish fringe of hair
thereon.

Leisa wedded Abram Bowen, and in a
set time she gave birth to a child, whom
Abram named Jos, saying : " This is
Leisa's bundle of sin."

Abram made fruitful the starving soil
of Penlon ; and he caused a brick flooring
to be put in the dairy, and trained Leisa
to wash her hands before separating milk
and before making butter.

And as Abram grew in strength and
regard, so the spirit of Silas forsook him.
His name was derided at wheresoever it
was said, and people sneered at him in his
presence. None fried carrots nor brewed
tea for him any more. He submitted unto
the new King.

Once he said to Bertha Daviss :

" Dammo, boy of Satan is Abram."
Q 225

MY PEOPLE

Whereupon Bertha went to Penlon and
said to Abram :

" Terrible indeed to goodness is Silas's
tongue about you, little Abram."

Abram ordered Nansi to give Bertha a
pat of butter, and then hurried to the
tramping road. He met Silas outside
Shop Rhys, and in the eye of the village
he thrashed the blasphemy out of him.
After that there was no more spirit left
in Silas.

In their day Silas and Nansi had saved
eighty sovereigns, and when Abram
had spent all that money in improving
the land and the outhouses of Penlon,
he called up Silas and Nansi before
him :

" Silas and Nansi," he said to them,
" have I not been long-suffering with your
filthy old ways ? "

" Iss, indeed, little Abram," replied
Nansi, " like the white little Jesus you
are to us."

226

A BUNDLE OF LIFE

" You stink like an old sow, Nansi,"
said Abram.

Nansi whimpered : " Don't you be
hard on me."

" Dear me now," Silas said, " do I not
bear your old smell ? "

" Ach y fi ! " exclaimed Abram. " Move
away. You stuff my nose."

Nansi moved back.

" Dear, dear," said Abram, " have I not
prayed all the night then ? The Big Man
say you and Nansi must leave Penlon."

Nansi breathed : " Abram, little Abram
bach, you won't send us off away ? '

" You are a drag on the place," replied
Abram. " Do not all speak about your
mudlike ways, then ? Every one got eleven
pennies a pound for butter at Castell-
ybryn on Friday ; I got only ten pennies
and three farthings. People said : 4 Who
will eat old Nansi's butter ? ' "

" Give him me a little bed alone in the
barn loft, boy bach of God," said Silas.
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MY PEOPLE

" Why speak you so foolish ? " said
Abram. " Where am I to put the straw
and the fowls ? Little, blockhead bach,
is your understanding ! But I will not
deal harshly with you. You two can live in
Old Nanni's cottage. Very happy you'll
be there. There's no rent to pay, and
you, Silas, can mind my sheep on the
moor."

" Man, man," cried Silas, " why should
I leave Penlon ? Did not my father give
it to me ? "

" Silas, indeed to goodness," said Abram,
" for sure you are possessed. Religious
Big Man, give you now me strength—
the strength you gave the little Apostles
— to cast out the Evil Spirit from old
Silas."

He took in his hand his new carriage
whip, and held it as he used to the thresher,
and he brought the thong down upon Silas's
back, and belly, and arms, and face.

Nansi made weepful sounds. She
228

A BUNDLE OF LIFE

was very old, and she wept until she
could weep no more.

When Silas's make-believe laughter was
turned into yells of pain, Abram his son-
in-law said :

" Get you up, now, Silas the sinner,
and ask you the Big Man to forgive you
your trespasses."

Silas and Nansi made ready to depart
to the mud-walled, straw-thatched cottage
in which the rats had bitten sores into old
Nanni's face ; before they set out, Abram
brought to them Jos, Leisa's first-born
child.

" Take you this brat of sin with you now,
little people," he said, " for he is not of my
bowels."

229

GREATER THAN LOVE

231

XIII
GREATER THAN LOVE

ESTHER knew the sun had risen because
she could number the ripening cheeses
arrayed on the floor against the wall.
She threw back the shawl and sacks
that covered her, and descending by
the ladder into the kitchen, withdrew the
bolt and opened the door.

" Goodness all ! Late terrible am I,"
she said to the young man who entered.
" Bring you the cows in a hurry, boy
bach."

"'Talk you like that, Esther, when the
old animals are in the close."

Esther knelt on the hearth and lit the
dried furze thereon.

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MY PEOPLE

" The buckets are in the milk-house,"
she went on. " Boy bach, hie you away
off and make a start. Come I will as
soon as I am ready."

The young man shuffled across the floor
into the dairy. He came back with two
buckets and a wooden tub, and he placed
the tub on the ground and sat on its
edge.

44 This is the day of the seaside," he
said.

Esther turned her face away from the
smoke that ascended from the fire.

" Indeed, indeed, now, Sam bach ! '
she cried, *' and you don't say so
then ! "

" Esther fach, vexful the move of your
tongue. Say to me whose cart is carting
you ? "

44 Who speeched that I was going, Sam
the son of Ginni ? '

44 Don't you be laughing, Esther. Tell
me now whose cart is carting you."
234

GREATER THAN LOVE

" Go I would for sure into Morfa, but,
dear me, no one will have me," said
Esther.

" What for you cry mischief when
there's no mischief to be ? ' said
Sam.

Esther tore off pieces of peat and ar-
ranged them lightly on the furze.

" Nice place is Morfa," she observed.

" Girl fach, iss," Sam said. " Nice will
be to go out in Twmmi's boat. Speak
you that you will spend the day with
me."

" How say Catrin ! Sober serious ! How
will Catrin the daughter of Rachel speak
if you don't go with her ? ':

" Mention you Catrin, Esther fach, what
for ? "

" Is there not loud speakings that you
have courted Catrin in bed ? Very full is
her belly."

" Esther ! Esther ! Why you make
me savage like an old rabbit ? Why for
235

MY PEOPLE

play old pranks ? Wench fach, others have
been into Catrin. If I die, this is true.
Do you believe me now ? '

Esther plagued him, saying :

" Bring me small fairings home, Sam
bach. Did I not give you a knife when I
went to the Fair of the Month of April ? "

Sam took out his knife, and sharpened
the blade on the leather of his clog.

" Grateful was I for the nice knife," he
said. " Did I not stick Old Shemmi's pig
with it, Esther fach ? "

"Well— well, then?"

" Look you, there's old murmuring that
you were taken in mischief with the
Schoolin' in Abram's hen loft," said Sam.

Esther rose to her feet and looked upon
him. This is the manner of man she saw :
a short, bent-shouldered, stunted youth ;
his face had never been shaved and was
covered with tawny hair, and his eyes were
sluggish.

Esther laughed.

236

GREATER THAN LOVE

" Boy bach, unfamiliar you are," she
said.

" Mam did say," Sam proceeded, " that
I ought not to wed a shiftless female
who doesn't take Communion in Capel
Sion."

" Your mother Old Ginni is right," said
Esther. " Keep you on with Catrin. Ugly
is Catrin with bad pimples in her face. But
listen you, Sam ; a large ladi I will be.
I don't want louts like you."

The fire was under way ; Esther rolled
up to her waist her outer petticoat and she
put on an apron.

" Why sit you there like a donkey ? ':
she cried. " Away you and do the milk-
ing."

" Esther fach, come you to Morfa,"
Sam pleaded.

" For sure I'm coming to Morfa,"
Esther answered. " But not with you.
Am I not going to find a love there ? "

Then they went forth into the close to
237

MY PEOPLE

milk Old Shemmi's cows, and while they
did so each chanted :

' There's a nice cow is Gwen !

Milk she gives indeed !
More milk, little Gwen ; more milk !

A cow fach is Gwen," —

thereby coaxing the animals to give their
full yield.

When the milk was separated Esther
put on her Sabbath garments and drew her
red hair tightly over her forehead, and she
took her place in Shemmi's hay-waggon.
There were many in the waggon other
than Esther and Sam, for the custom is
that the farmer takes his servants and
those who have helped him without pay-
ment in the hayfield freely on a set day
to the Sea of Morfa.

Shemmi's waggon reached Morfa before

the dew had lifted, and towards the heat

of the day (after they had eaten) the

people of Manteg gathered together. One

238

GREATER THAN LOVE

said : " Come you down to the brim now,
and let us wash our little bodies." The
men bathed nakedly : the women had
brought spare petticoats with them, and
these they wore when they were in the
water.

Esther changed her behaviour when
she got to Morfa, and she feigned herself
above all who had come from Manteg, and
while she sat alone in the shadow of a cliff
there came to her Hws Morris, a young
man who was in training to be a minister.
Mishtir Morris was elegant : his clothes
were black and he had a white collar
around his neck and white cuffs at the
ends of his sleeves, and on his feet he had
brown shoes of canvas.

Hws Morris took off from his head his
black hat, which was of straw, and said
to Esther :

" Sure now, come you from Squire
Pryce's household ? You are his daughter
indeed ? "

239

MY PEOPLE

" Stranger bach," answered Esther, " say
you like that, what for ? '

" A ladi you seem," said Hws Morris.

Esther was vain, and she did not per-
ceive through the man's artifice.

" Indeed, indeed, then," said Hws Mor-
ris, " speak from where you are."

" Did you not say I was Squire Pryce's
daughter ? " said Esther.

" Ho, ho, old boy wise is Squire Pryce."

Esther turned her eyes upon the bathers.
Catrin and another woman were knee-deep
in the water; between them, their hands
linked, Sam. She heard Bertha Daviss
crying from the shore : " Don't you wet it,
Sam bach."

Hws Morris placed the tips of his fingers
into his ears.

" This," he mourned, " after two thou-
sands years of religion. They need the
little Gospel."

" Very respectable to be a preacher it is,"
said Esther.

240

GREATER THAN LOVE

" And to be a preacher's mistress," said
Hws Morris. " Great is the work the Big
Man has called me to do."

A murmuring came from the women
on the beach : Sam was struggling in the
water. Esther moved a little nearer the
sea.

" Where was you going to, then ? ?;
asked Hws Morris. " You was not going
to bathe with them ? "

" Why for no ? "

" See you how immodest they are. Girl
fach, stay you here. If you need to wash
your body, go you round to the backhead of
the old stones and take off your clothes and
bathe where no eyes will gaze on you."

The murmuring now sounded violent :
Lloyd the Schoolin' was swimming to-
wards Sam.

Esther passed beyond the stones, and in

a cave she cast off her clothes and walked

into the sea ; and having cleansed herself,

she dried her skin in the heat of the sun.

B 241

MY PEOPLE

When she got out from the cave, Hws
Morris came up to her.

" Hungry you are," he said to her.
*4 Return you into the cave and eat a
little of this cake."

He led her far inside, so far that they
could not see anything that was out-
side. Hws Morris placed his arm over
Esther's shoulders, and his white fingers
moved lightly over her breast to her
thigh. He stole her heart.

Esther heard a voice crying her name.

" Wench fach," said Hws Morris to her,
" let none know of our business."

Sam shouted her name against the
rocks and over the sea ; he cried it in the
ears of strange people and at the doors
of strange houses. Towards dusk he said
to the women who were waiting for
Shemmi's hay waggon to start home :
" Little females, why is Esther not here ? '

Catrin jeered at him : " Filling her
belly is Esther."

242

GREATER THAN LOVE

it
K

" But say you've seen Esther fach ! "
Sam cried.

Twt, twt ! " said Bertha Daviss.

What's the matter with the boy ? Take
him in your arms, Catrin, and take him
to your bed."

" Speak you Esther is not drowned,"
Sam urged.

" Drowned ! r Catrin repeated loudly.
"Good if the bad concubine is."

" Evil is the wench," said Bertha Daviss.
" Remember how she tried to snare Rhys
Shop."

" Fond little women," Sam cried,
" say you that Esther fach is not
drowned."

" Sam, indeed to goodness," Bertha
said to him, " trouble not your mind about
a harlot."

" Now, dear me," answered Sam, " fool-
ish is your speech, Bertha. How shall
I come home without Esther ? ':

" There's Catrin, Sam bach. Owe you
243

MY PEOPLE

nothing to Catrin ? Is she not in child
by you ? "

Old Shemmi's hay waggon came into
the roadway, and Sam said to the man who
drove the horse :

;' Male bach nice, don't you begin before
Esther comes, and she will be soon. Maybe
she's sleeping."

" In the arms of a man," said Catrin.

Sam placed his hands around his mouth
and shouted Esther's name.

The people entered the waggon : Sam
remained in the road.

" Find you her, Sam bach ! ' Catrin
cried. " Ask the Bad Spirit if he has
seen her."

Old Shemmi's mare began the way
home.

Sam hastened back to the beach : the
tide was coming in, and he walked through
the waters, shouting, moaning, and lament-
ing. At last he beheld Esther, and an
awful wrath was kindled within him. As
244

GREATER THAN LOVE

he had loved her, so he now hated her : he
hated even more than he had loved her.
He had gone on the highway that ends in
Llanon. At a little distance in front of
him he saw her with a man, and he crept
close to them and he heard their voices.
He heard Esther saying :

"Don't you send me away now. Let
me stay with you."

The man answered : " Shut your throat,
you temptress. For why did you flaunt
your body before my religious eyes ? ':

" Did you not make fair speeches to
me ? " said Esther.

" Terrible is your sin," said the man.
" Turn away from me. Little Big Man
bach, forgive me for eating of the wench's
fruit."

Sam came up to them by stealth.

" Out of your head you must be, boy
bach, to make sin with Esther," he said.

Hws Morris looked into Sam's face, and
a horrid fear struck him, and he ran ; and
245

MY PEOPLE

Sam opened his knife and running after
him, caught him and killed him. He
had difficulty in drawing away the blade,
because it had entered into the man's
skull. Then he returned to the place
where Esther was, and her he killed also.

246

LAMENTATIONS

247

XIV
LAMENTATIONS

THE Big Man despised Evan Rhiw, and
said to the Respected Davydd Bern-
Davydd, who then ruled from Capel
Sion :

" Bern-Davydd, oppress Evan Rhiw.
Go you off up and down the land now and
say to the people : ' Lo, you animals in
the image of the Big Man, God's blast is
on the old male of Rhiw.' :

Bern-Davydd descended from the top
of the moor and did according as he had
been commanded ; and his words got to
the ears of Evan, who said : " Why must
I be confused, dear me, because of that
crow without sense, Bern-Davydd ? Call
you reasons to me."
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MY PEOPLE

Turning away from the man, the Judge
of Sion answered by the mouth of Bertha
Daviss (who was the tale-bearer of the
district) : " Evan Rhiw, what are your
works in Capel Sion ? Did not the Big
Man say, ' Bern bach, speak to me the
sacrifices of Evan Rhiw for my Terrible
Temple.' ' Little Big Man,' I answered,
4 the least of my flock gives more
than him.' : Then Bern-Davy dd, by the
mouth of Bertha, sang : " Evan Rhiw,
swifter is the hand of the Lord than
the water which turns Old Daniel's mill.
Awful are the fingers that will grasp you
by your rib trousers and throw you
through the spouting flames into the
Fiery Pool."

Evan did not regard this warning
and stiffened his legs, because his sub-
stance consisted of fifty acres of land,
a horse, three cows, and swine and hens :
he was neither perfect nor upright, nor
did he fear the men who sat in the high
250

LAMENTATIONS

places in Capel Sion ; and he revelled
with loose, wild men in the inn which is
kept by Mistress Shames.

Now the day the Big Man chastened
him he drank much ale, and, unaware of
what he was doing, he sinned against his
daughter Matilda. In the morning he
perceived what he had done, and was
fearful lest his wife Hannah should revile
him and speak aloud his wickedness. So,
having laid a cunning snare for her, and
finding that the woman did not know any-
thing, he spoke to her harshly and with-
out cause. This is what he said :
"Filthier you are than a cow."
" Evan, indeed to goodness," Hannah
replied, " iobish you talk. Sober dear, do
I not work to the bone ? ': With a knife
she scraped through the refuse on her
arm and displayed to him the thinness
to which she referred. Then in her anger
she spoke : " Slack you are, Evan Rhiw.
Your little land you drink in the tavern
251

MY PEOPLE

of Mistress Shames. Are not the people
mouthing your foolish ways on the tramp-
ing road and in Shop Rhys ? "

Matilda entered the kitchen, and threw
these words at him : " Dull and whorish
you are, son of the Bad Spirit. Serious
me, clean your smelly flesh in the pond."

Hannah interpreted the meaning of
Matilda's words, and she reproached him
bitterly.

But Evan answered none of the women.
He went to the inn, and in his muddle he
sorrowed : " Five over twenty years have
I been wedded. When I took Hannah the
servant of Bensha to my bed, rich was I.
Did I not have six pairs of drawers, and
six pairs of stockings, and six pairs of
shirts of white linen ? And three pairs of
rib trousers ? There's rib, people bach.
Ninepence over half a crown a yard it cost
in the Shop of the Bridge in Castellybryn.
Not a shirt of linen do I possess this day.
Wasteful has Hannah been with J mine.
252

LAMENTATIONS

Sad is my lot. Disorderly is the female,
and Matilda says this and that about me
to my discredit."

He brayed his woe also in the narrow
Roman road which takes you past the
Schoolhouse and in the path that cuts
over Gorse Penparc into the field wherein
stands Rhiw. At an early hour in the
morning Matilda said to her mother :
" Mam now, the cows fach are lowing to
be milked," and receiving no answer she
looked into Hannah's face and examined
her body, and she saw that the woman was
cold dead, whereupon she went out and
into the stable, in the loft of which Evan
slept, and cried up to him : " Father bach,
do you stir yourself. Old mam has gone
to wear a White Shirt."

While Sara Ann was clothing herself in
mournful raiment Evan put on his clogs
and went to the house of Lias the Carpen-
ter, and to Lias he said : " The nice man,
for why you don't know there is a desolate
253

MY PEOPLE

place in my heart this one minute ? Come
you with your little rule that shows the
inches and measure the body of old Hannah
for a coffin."

The second day that Hannah rested in
the burial-ground of Capel Sion, Evan
rubbed his face and hands with small
gravel in the little water which runs at
the foot of the close of Rhiw, and he
drew a comb through his thinnish beard,
and he walked to the house of Bern-
Davydd.

14 Respected and religious preacher,"
he said, " full of repentance am I, son of
the little White Jesus."

" Happy you make me, Evan Rhiw,"
answered Bern-Davy dd. " Grand will the
angels sing, man, in the White Palace,
when you take the communion. The
wine, Evan, is it not the blood and the
bread the flesh of the Big Man ? "

" Discreet and wise ruler, let me make
him a nice little offering."
254

LAMENTATIONS

" Religious proper, you are, Evan. Not
to me, man, not to Mistress Bern-Davydd
you make your sacrifices, but to the Big
Man. I keep your gift in trust for Him.
What shall I say is the name of the sacri-
fice, Evan bach ? "

" This day the wench Sara Ann is churn-
ing, and is she not bringing him a pound
of little butter ? "

" Evan Rhiw, there is no sound of such
a sacrifice in the Bible."

" And a tin pitcher full of buttermilk."

" Did Abram offer the three Strangers
buttermilk, Evan ? "

" And a big cabbage with a white
heart."

" The Children of Israel, Evan bach,
ate flesh."

" And a full wheelbarrow of potatoes."

" Tarry you awhile," said Bern-Davydd,

" and I will commune with the Big Man."

Presently he made utterance : " This is

what the Great One of Capel Sion says :

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MY PEOPLE

4 1 will abate my oppression of Evan Rhiw
if he makes a sacrifice of a pig.' '

Evan brought the pig ; and he was ad-
mitted into Sion, and for two years he
sinned not, and there was much pious joy
in his way, and he prospered exceedingly.
People said one to another : " Behold now,
this man Evan is among the wisest in the
Capel. And there's rich he is." More-
over he had given over feasting on the
Devil's brew with loose, wild men, and his
lips constantly moved in silent prayer, and
he had respect for those who sat in the
high places.

But as the man's possessions multiplied,
his daughter Matilda got dull and became
a cumbersome thing on him : and he
charged the Big Man foolishly before the
congregation of the Seiet. " Why, God
bach," he said, " is your foot so heavy on
me ? Am I not religious ? Ask you the
Respected Davydd Bern-Davydd. Matilda
is strange and amazed in her eyes,
256

LAMENTATIONS

and she is set on mischief, and why brawls
she loudly about me ? Ach, indeed ! Bad
is this for your male son." For this God
cursed his belongings : two horses sickened
and perished, great rain fell upon his
hay, which was ripe to be stacked ; a cow
destroyed her calf. The congregation was
sore and murmured against him : " Pity
now that our hay is rotting because of the
bad sin of Evan Rhiw." A body of them
wailed to Bern-Davydd.

" Speech him to the Great Harvester
about this man Evan Rhiw," they
said.

" Children bach," said Bern-Davydd,
" run you about and about, and I will go
to the top of the old moor and sing this
lamentation to Him : ' Now then, why
for you see our costly hay ruined ? Is
it a light thing that our precious
animals starve throughout the hard
days ? ' "

They looked at one another and
S 257

MY PEOPLE

marvelled at the familiarity between
Bern-Davydd and the Big Man. " Sure,"
they said, " he is as important as
God."

The third day the Judge of Sion com-
manded his flock to him, and he said to
them : " Boys, boys, glad was the Big
Man that I spoke to Him. Do you know
what He said ? ' Large thanks, Bern bach.
Religious are you to remind me of the sin
of Evan Rhiw. The man has a clean heart,
and an adder in his house.' ' Big Man,
don't you vex me,' I said. c Whisper you
me the name of the adder.' The Big Man
said, ' Maltida. Evan may sin again,
grievously, but I will restore him to Capel
Sion, and I will bless him abundantly, for
his freewill offerings to my Temple are
generous.' Little boys, He went back to
Heaven in a cloud, and the cloud was
no bigger than the flat of this old
hand."

The night of the Hiring Fair Evan drank
258

LAMENTATIONS

in the inn, and the ale made him drunk,
and he cried a ribald song ; the men with
whom he drank mocked him, and they
carried him into the stable and laid him
in a manger, and covered him with hay ;
and in the stall they put a horse, thinking
the animal would eat Evan's hair and
beard. But the Big Man watched over
Evan, and the horse did not eat his
beard.

"What shall we do," said the light
men, " to humble him before the con-
gregation ? "

One said : " Let us strip the skin from
the horse that perished, which is buried
in the narrow field, and we will throw it
over his head."

Thus they did, and Evan went home
with the skin of the horse covering the
back of him like a mantle.

His daughter Maltida saw him and was
disturbed, and she kept out of his way until
he slept. Then she issued forth from her
259

MY PEOPLE

hiding place, and said to herself : " Jesus
bach, if the sons of men wear the habit
of horses the daughters of God must
go naked." She cast from her body her
clothes, and went down the Roman road
and into the village. The people closed
their doors on her, and for four days she
wandered thereabouts nakedly. The men of
the neighbourhood laid rabbit traps on the
floor of the fields, and one trap caught the
foot of Maltida, and she was delivered into
Evan's hands. Having clothed her, he
took a long rope, the length and thickness
that is used to keep a load of hay intact,
and one end of the rope he fastened round
her right wrist and one end round the left
wrist. In this wise he drove her before him,
in the manner in which a colt is driven,
to the madhouse of the three shires, which
is in the town of Carmarthen, and the
distance from Manteg to Carmarthen is
twenty-four miles.

After that Evan did not sin any more ;
260

LAMENTATIONS

his belongings increased, and he had ten
milching cows and five horses, and he hired
a manservant and a maidservant, and he
rented twenty-five acres of land over and
beyond the land that was his, and his
house remained religious as long as he
lived.

261

THE BLAST OF GOD

263

XV

THE BLAST OF GOD

OWEN TYGWYN— Tygwyn is the zinc-roofed
house that is in a group of trees at the
back of Capel Sion — was ploughing when
his wife Shan came to the break in the
hedge, crying :

" For what you think, little man ? Dai
is hanging in the cowhouse. Come you
now and see to him."

Owen ended the furrow and unharnessed
the horse, which he led into the stable
and fed with hay. Then he unravelled
the knot in the rope which had choked
the breath of his son Dai. When he was
finished and Dai was laid on the floor of
the cowhouse, Shan said to him :

" Eat you your middle-of-the-day
265

MY PEOPLE

morsel now, before you go back to the old
plough."

Having eaten to his liking of the beaten
potatoes and buttermilk, Owen resumed
his labour, and while he was labouring he
rehearsed a prayer he would make for a
male child, and that prayer he said to
the Big Husband at the far end of the
light. His petition reached the ears of
God, and after twenty months it was
answered : the cry of the infant woke
him, and he got out of bed and lit a tallow
candle, and read his Bible, because he was
very glad. With the rising of the sun
he brought his three cows into the close.

" Lissi Mari," he said to his daughter,
who slept at the foot of the bed, '* get
you up now, wench fach, and milk the
creatures, for things are so-so with Shan.
Are not their old udders bursting ? '

The child was named Samuel, and in
Capel Sion on the Sabbath Owen glorified
the Big Man.

266

THE BLAST OF GOD

But his words were not pleasing to
Joshua Lancoch, who corrected him,
saying :

" An old veil females wear must divide
you from the face of the Big Man. In-
deed, like lead is my heart for you. Over-
vain you are to expect too much from your
brat. He is not of the Lord's giving."

"Sober, Joshua," said Owen, "speak
you out, dear me, there's a wise little man."

" Well-well, now, ill is my stomach to
make speech, but Shan is a miscarrying
woman, and a miscarrying woman is
dung in the nose of the Man of Terror.
Two she miscarried before Dai, Owen
bach, and Dai hanged himself to the Fiery
Pool in the cowhouse. Ach y fi ! Do you
be humble, and tempt you the Big Man
not overmuch. He is quick to anger."

Because of this chiding Owen entreated
the Lord continually, and he also made
sacrifices unto Capel Sion : his possessions
got small and he whipped his spirit into

267

MY PEOPLE

humility and subjection, for is it not
written that the meek shall inherit the
Kingdom ? He sold live stock to pay his
rent, and this stock he was never able to
replace. After the birth of Samuel Shan
miscarried two children, and the price of
two pigs provided them with coffins and
graves.

In his bitterness Owen turned to his wife
and said : " Pity the Big Man has made
you such a spoilful curse."

Shan spread her hands over her waste-
ful breasts, and moaned :

" Make you not that speech, little Owen.
Have you not Samuel ? Did not the Great
Husband send him in answer to your
prayer ? '

" Right true, Shan. Now indeed, pious
the boy bach is."

44 Iss-iss. Does he not tongue prayers
like a preacher ? And his learning is more
than the old Schoolin's."

44 Why you speak stupid for, woman ?
268

THE BLAST OF GOD

That old blockhead of a Schoolin' knows
nothing."

" Grand will be if we send him to the
School of Grammar in Castellybryn."

" Iss, dear me."

" Holy joy will be to listen to him preach
the Word."

" Sam bach will make every one weep
with his eloquence."

Owen called his son to him.

" Stand you on an old chair," he said
to him, " and say out a small hymn and
make a bit of prayer."

When the lad finished, Owen said :

" Well done, little boy bach clever.
Did I not think I was in Capel Sion ? >:

" Pretty his speech," exclaimed Shan.
" Heard you how he sang, c Be with Thy
nice servant bach in the Temple of Sion,
prosper his work among the sinful con-
gregation5 ? ':

Samuel passed the seventh standard
in the School of Lloyd, whereat Owen,
269

MY PEOPLE

asked in the Seiet to bear testimony, spoke
these words :

" Do you be glad with me that the Big
Man has inspired my son Samuel to noise
abroad His Word. Has not the Lord
been good to me then ? You all know
that Shan is a miscarrying woman. Yet,
lo, He blesses her iniquity. Mouth you
this miracle throughout all the land."

In due season he went to Castellybryn
and said to the Chief Teacher of the
School of Grammar :

" Mishtir bach, make you room for my
son Samuel, the child the Big Husband
sent in answer to my groanings."

The day of the Harvest Fair he jour-
neyed there again, and he drove before
him a cow in calf, and one part of the
money he got for the animal he gave to
the Chief Teacher, and with the other
part he caused to be made for Samuel a
preacher's coat, which is of shiny black
material.

270

THE BLAST OF GOD

Owen and Shan bent their backs and
tilled and turned the soil, but they reaped
less than they sowed. Lissi Mari became
a servant-maid on Abel's farm (which is
on the sea side of the moor). Before the
term of her hire was over she returned
to her father's house.

" Lissi Mari is carrying her cross,"
Shan mourned.

" We will keep this a secret from my
son," said Owen. " Very holy must his
thoughts be stored."

Samuel entered College Carmarthen,
and Owen sold two sheep so that his son
might have clothes that would be for
glory and holiness.

" That's fair, little man," said Shan.
" He must be kept presentable," and every
Friday she killed a fattened hen and had
it sent to the house where he lodged.

For all that Owen and Shan did, Samuel
was grateful, and he said : "In me they
will find their stronghold ; ' and in the
271

MY PEOPLE

call of Capel Bethel, in Morfa, he distin-
guished the voice of God.

And Owen said to his wife Shan :

" The Great Father is repenting of His
doings against you, Shan fach."

" Little man, iss. Iss, little man," she
answered gladly. " Joyful am I to see
the boy in the pulpit."

As their souls rejoiced, the weariness
which follows heavy toil made their bones
stiff. Shan was flat and unlovely, and
of the colour of earth. Except on the
Sabbath she covered her bosom with many
shawls and a discarded waistcoat, and in
the wrinkles of her face there was much
dirt.

There was a day when Samuel came to
Tygwyn and looked upon the burdens of
his father and mother, and he said to them :

" People bach, leave Tygwyn and go
you and abide in the cottage against the
back of Shop Rhys. Take you Lissi
Mari's baby."

272

THE BLAST OF GOD

" Foolish is your speech," said Shan.
" How shall we fend without a little cow
and a little pig ? ':

" Am I not of your flesh ? ': asked
Samuel.

" Gift of the Big Father, good are you,"
and the woman shivered in her happiness,
and Owen and Shan lifted their feet and
took all that was in the house and went to
abide in the place appointed by Samuel.

Three years passed. Lissi Mari was
out in the world. Owen was a power in
Capel Sion, for the brand was lifted from
the face of Shan.

Then a horrible thing happened :
Samuel wrought folly in Capel Bethel,
in Morfa, and the sound of it reached
the high places of all the Capels.

Hugh Morgan, a deacon in Bethel,
stopped his pony in front of Shop Rhys.

" Show him me the abode of Owen the
Father of Samuel the minister of Bethel,"
he said to Rhys.

T 273

MY PEOPLE

Rhys asked : " Explain him to me his
little errand now, dear stranger."

" Little man who sells things in a shop,
why for will he plead ? Take him me now
hasty to the place."

" Tell him me then at once quickly,"
sad Rhys.

" Has he not heard of this infamy ?
Man, man, Samuel the son of Satan has
hanged his clay."

44 Solemn ! Solemn ! "

44 Was not the nanny-goat the father of
Esther's child ? Esther the daughter of
Shon of the Boats ? "

44 Speak he like that now ? "

44 Was there not a meeting of First
Men the last night, and did I not accuse
him ? * You put her big,' I speeched."

44 Talk in that manner then ? ' said
Rhys of the Shop. 44 What glory has ever
come from a miscarrying woman ? '

Rhys Shop and Hugh Morgan went into
the house of Owen and Shan.
274

THE BLAST OF GOD

" For shame, man of the bad," said
Rhys. " And you too, Shan, the serpent
in the Great One's Temple. An old
abomination you are then ! There was
Dai, and the dead, though not born.
And now Samuel."

" Dear little Rhys, harsh are your
words," said Owen.

Hugh Morgan stood on the threshold.
" Dear me, man," he said to Rhys,
" there's a talker he is for sure ! Am
I not the messenger ? ' Then he turned
to Owen and Shan and spoke to them
wrathfully : " Is not Samuel the father
of Esther's child ? And has he not hanged
himself ? "

" Shame on you, sinners," said Rhys.

" Fetch you Satan's carcase away this
day," said Hugh Morgan. " The smelly
clay is lying in my barn. Fetch you the
unholy object."

Owen hired a cart and horse and he
placed three sacks and a little straw on
275

MY PEOPLE

the floor of the cart ; and Shan said to
him : " Hide you this little patchwork
quilt under the sacks and straw, for fear
men's eyes will see it and they jeer at
you."

Before departing, Owen said :
14 Go you and dig a grave and have it
ready that we can bury your son this
night. Leave space between Dai's and
his for my coffin. When the Big Trumpet
tones I will rise early and make excuses
to the Angel not to be too hard on your
sons as they were born of a miscarrying

woman.'

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